


Orajje's As N Approaches Infinity Fan AUs and Oneshots

by Orajje



Category: Bleach, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Being Homura Is Suffering, Crack, Crack and Angst, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Insanity, Kyoko's not paid enough to deal with these idiots, Literal Sleeping Together, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Scars, Sleep, Sleepiness, Soulmarks cause pain when touched if there's a dissonance, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Time Travel, Witches, just a lot of them, magic induced sleepiness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:42:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 58
Words: 33,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29779803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orajje/pseuds/Orajje
Summary: A collection of my fan au's that were previously posted on the ANAI discord.
Relationships: Akemi Homura/Kaname Junko, Akemi Homura/Kaname Junko/Kaname Tomohisa, Akemi Homura/Kaname Madoka, Akemi Homura/Miki Sayaka, Kaname Junko/Kaname Tomohisa
Comments: 15
Kudos: 51





	1. Role Switch (oneshot)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [As N Approaches Infinity](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3553727) by [Corisanna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corisanna/pseuds/Corisanna). 



> while im going to be posting the au's in batches, updates may be out of chronological order.
> 
> current au's:  
> Role Switch (oneshot)  
> The golf club (oneshot)  
> Luckymura  
> Soulmate AU  
> Scarred au  
> Hibernation (oneshot)  
> Runes  
> Some Slight Insanity  
> Some Minor Insanity  
> Rewound  
> Shinigami Homura  
> Madoka's Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sayaka tries to save her new friend.

Sayaka remembered, back when she met Homura, so, so long ago. The girl had been shy, cute, even a little confidant. Even saving her life from a witch, and healing Kyousuke for her when she hadn't even asked. They'd just had a talk, and Sayaka had mentioned it after Homura had gone over her circumstances.

She had wanted to help after that, but could never think of a wish. Mami and Homura were amazing, but… there just wasn't anything she wanted. ~~she'd been lying to herself, even then.~~

After Walpurgisnacht, she did have something to wish for.

As she clutched the dead body of her new best friend, ~~not that Madoka and Hitomi weren't, but Homura was a new addition,~~ she made her wish. "I wish to be able to go back, and fight to protect my friends from dying!"

Becoming Homura's friend a second time had hurt, but she had a chance to save the girl now. She had something to fight for! Between the three of them, they were unstoppable! Her sword may be ceremonial, but it was enough. Especially after she started gathering other weapons.

But she failed again.

And again.

Going back, over and over. Madoka getting caught up in this mess quickly, as well as a girl named Kyoko.

Sayaka watched, over and over, one way or another, she failed to save them. Any of them. Her friends dying repeatedly, again and again.

She wondered when the last time she actually smiled was. A true smile anyways, not the fake one she plastered on for years. She suspected the answer was a very, very long time ago. She had to spend all her time prepping, ignoring her own emotions. She couldn't let herself despair. Wouldn't even let herself cry most days.

Her parents didn't help, getting on her, timeline after timeline about stupid, inconsequential _bullshit_.

When all of her friends died again, and she still had over a week left, she made a decision, for her own sanity.

She ran, ending up on a train, and going somewhere else.

When she found Karakura, she hadn't expected all the help she got, or at least ended up getting. They believed her, wanted to help her fight.

With the opportunity to relax, just a little, and actually be with her friend's again. She realized how much she'd missed them. She had fought so hard it was hard to imagine doing normal things again. It was difficult to do so many things she used to take for granted.

But eventually, after more timelines slowly drained away… she won, and watched the changes she'd made. The incubator had been defeated, Madoka was alive, if far more powerful than she used to be. Mami and Kyoko were her friends, she had healed Kyousuke herself, and Homura was not only her friend, but had become part of the Korusaki's family. The one who had helped her, had fought with her so many timelines ago.

She hadn't admitted it to anyone, anyone but herself anyways, but she loved the girl. Over the countless timelines, she had watched, and learned more about the person who had saved her, and she loved every last bit of the girl. From how sweet she was, how protective she was of her friends, the steel spine she rarely showed.

It took her awhile, but she decided to confess her feelings for the girl, taking her to Kyousuke's first concert since having his hand healed, and as the music washed over them. She told Homura she loved her, and if she wanted, it would make her happy if they could become a couple.

She sat in silence for a minute, watching the girls stunned face, growing antsier by the second. To the point that she looked away and tried to apologize. Not that the attempt lasted past Homura near tackling her out of her seat in a hug. She seemed embarrassed by how much force she had put behind it, but said she loved her too.

Sayaka hugged the girl she loved back, feeling tears run down her cheeks. When Homura said her smile was beautiful, she was shocked for a moment, then she realized she was. She was _smiling_. Not one of her countless fakes, but a real smile.

She hugged the girl against her, letting herself truly let go for the first time in a long time.


	2. The golf club (oneshot)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Homura achieves bankai.

Homura had been through a couple of timelines with the Karakura contingent as her allies, and Urahara was pretty sure he had figured out a way to unlock a Bankai equivalent. Meeting Homulilly had been… _an experience._ Homulilly had been understanding, and even helpful. Didn’t stop her from giving one hell of a fight.

So now she _should_ be able to use “Bankai”. So, she gathered her power, and yelled the words that almost seemed to flow from her soul. “Break the chains of existence, Homulilly!”

Her shield seemed to become coated with violet flames as the shield shifted to a new form. A form that fits her within hands. A weapon. The weapon that would allow her to protect Madoka, and all her friends. The weapon that would even the odds-

…

It was…

A fucking golf club.

Not even a particularly special looking one.

_Just a normal fucking golf club!_

Of course.

Of fucking course.

Even her Bankai was worthless.

Had her own spirit tricked her?

Goddammit, she needed to vent a bit. She was next to a boulder in the training area, it would be fucking therapeutic right about now to just imagine it flying off and hitting the another boulder she saw a bit further away as she swung the fucking piece of shit- the boulder goddamn launched itself into the other, shattering both.

…

She looked down at her golf club.

Well.

She quickly hit a nearby rock and imagined it hitting Urahara, who was behind her.

When she swung, the rock _ricocheted_ against the wall and hit Urahara in the head before he could react.

…

There was no way it could get anymore bullshit… right?

…

What if she just…

She pulled out a knife, imagined it killing every incubator in existence, held the thought in her head, threw the knife up, and swung her weapon.

As it ricocheted off into the distance, she wondered when it would stop.

…

Turns out it didn’t, as a few days later every incubator was dead via an exceedingly fast knife that seemed to ignore physics.

…

Well at least she knew her spirit wasn’t messing with her.


	3. Luckymura 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madoka makes a wish to help Homura.
> 
> Homura doesn't know what to do with the sudden luck.

Madoka looked across Mitakihara, the city being leveled by Walpurgisnacht.

She watched as everything was destroyed, and as Homura took a hit from a building.

She had managed to get Homura to tell her everything… or at least a good chunk of everything. She knew that Homura was a time traveler, a hero who had gone back in time, over and over, to save those she held dear.

… But she couldn't do it alone, not with everyone against her. But with the incubator fighting against her in the shadows, she probably wouldn't be able to. She just wasn't good enough with other people.

Madoka wanted, more than anything, for Homura to have help. But she couldn't wish to go back with her. Homura had made a promise, and she suspected Homura wouldn't give up fighting until she had fulfilled it.

Which is when another possible wish entered her mind.

"I wish things would always work out for Homura, and that she would have the help she needs, in this timeline, and all future ones!"

\---

Homura heard something in the distance, from where she was pinned. Then watched a *radiant*, pink light wash over everything.

Madoka had contacted, she'd failed again.

She activated her shield. Causing everything to freeze for a moment… two moments… three moments…

Just as she began to panic, reality suddenly _shattered_.

\---

She suddenly woke up in her hospital bed, feeling a little woozy. She ignored it, and prepared for her departure. Quickly healing her eyes and ending up at the front to sign out. This would be done for her if she waited, but she couldn't afford to waste any time. Thankfully, she had done this countless times before, so she just nodded or shook her head at the appropriate times.

Until she realized she had heard Mami's name, and that she had somehow ended up signing up to live with Mami for the immediate future as she "readjusted" to school…

What? This matched up with none of the previous timelines…? So what could've…?

She sighed, and decided to ignore it for now. She would have to make a new plan, as she had no idea what would happen now.


	4. Luckymura 2

Homura shifted nervously as she thought about what she was doing. She was going to be staying with Mami. She would also likely be under the Incubators direct watch, and she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. So she would be stuck with the most dangerous magical girl in the area, and she had no grief seeds to give Mami to smooth over their meeting. Thankfully, she was able to get away with not being escorted by saying she would take a bus. Quickly running off to hunt.

It took her a while, but she found that one weak witch. Not even bothering with anything but stopping time and filling it with bullets as soon as she entered the labyrinth. Once she grabbed the dropped grief seed, she headed over to Mami’s house quickly. Already a couple hours late.

After jumping across roofs to the girls house, she was in front of the door. She hesitated for a moment, but knocked anyway.

The sheer speed with which Mami opened the door was shocking, let alone the worried look in her eyes. “Are you okay?! You were supposed to be here a couple hours ago and I wasn’t sure whether you were missing or were just lost!” … Well… that may have been a mistake. Evidently Mami had been worrying about her, possibly informed about her condition given everything. She held back a cringe at Mami possibly knowing about her former weakness.

“I am sorry to have worried you, I was just trying to get you this.” She pulled out the grief seed. “To smooth things over.”

Mami stared at it, then looked at her ring finger… Had she completely missed it until this point? Whatever. Then Mami slowly reached out, taking the grief seed. “Uh, thank you Akemi san! I appreciate the offer of… partnership?” she nodded, Mami looking like her birthday had come early as she continued. “And I agree to the offer as long as you are fine with me hunting familiars, I would even be fine with teaching you some things if you want the training!” It was obvious that Mami’s senpai mask had gone up, her loneliness overpowering the remnants of her worry. At least the girl was willing to speak with her, and the Incubator hadn’t gotten the chance to sour her opinion of Homura yet.

She shook her head though. “While I am fine with hunting familiars, I doubt you have much to teach me.” She cringed internally at that, only realizing once she said it that it could possibly come off as arrogant. *stupid, stupid and sloppy. She had likely already ruined what little good impression the girl had of her. Why did talking to others have to be so **hard.***

But Mami just giggled as she led her into the house. “You’re very confident aren’t you? Just make sure you don’t get too confident and remember that the offer is always open!” she blinked, but followed. Sitting down at the table as Mami got refreshments.

Oddly, the Incubator wasn’t currently around, but she suspected that would end soon.

Things were going too relatively well for something not to go wrong soon.


	5. Luckymura 3

Mami hadn’t quite meant to accept the offer from her email, but she’d done it before she could think about the consequences. 

Then she got the confirmation, a girl named Homura Akemi whose parents had died two years ago. A girl with a heart condition who had dealt with bullying. She felt her heart go out to the girl, but she’d just gotten home from school and the girl would be at her home soon, so after taking a look at her picture she went around her room and waited.

But she didn’t come.

As the hours passed, ideas and potential scenarios shot through her mind. She couldn’t just run off to check if it had been a witch, and if the girl had just gotten lost then calling the police was a terrible idea. She got more worried by the second, beginning to pace back and forth and bake in her panic.

Until she heard a knock.

She rushed over, quickly opening the door on the other side, even if she had ditched the cute braids and glasses at some point. She felt relief fill her, even as she fussed over the ~~possible friend~~ girl.

Then the girl held out a grief seed, and Mami looked down at the ring on the girl's hand, quickly realizing why the girl had likely taken so long, while she chided herself for letting her guard down enough to not notice another magical girl so close. But if the girl is a magical girl, one so willing to ally herself with her…

Would she finally have a new partner? A friend she could talk to?

The girl turned down her offer of training, which if this girl was a new magical girl was possibly a little cocky, but at the same time… she wasn’t going to be rude back. This was likely a response to all the bullying, and lashing out would be unfair.

~~ She almost wondered how anyone could bully such a beautiful girl, but she shook her head. This was her Junior, if not as a magical girl then at least as a student. ~~


	6. Luckymura 4

Ryuken walked, having been invited to a medical conference due to his position and skill. He looked at the city, slowly thinking as he went to check into his hotel room. The longer he walked though, the more something felt slightly off. He almost ignored it, but no matter how much he wanted to… He was a Quincy, and if nothing else he could probably send some sort of message to the Korusaki’s or Urahara so they would deal with it if there was actually something happening.

After checking in, he headed around Mitakihara. Heading in the general direction of some powerful Reiatsu sources while he took a look around the city, if nothing else he would be able to get a good lay of the land around here. As he did, keeping his power muted, he soon found the source of two of the stronger sources in the city, two girls walking around with two odd looking glowing gems in their hands.

One being purple, one being yellow. Before he could blink, suddenly a weird… thing(?) appeared in front of them. Something that felt disturbingly like a hollow. They then _transformed_ , somehow having their clothes changed into something else. After they stepped into it, he waited for a few minutes, having sat down on a bunch, but just as he was lightly considering trying to go in after them, or just leaving entirely, the distortion disappeared and the girls popped back into existence.

He narrowed his eyes at the guns in their hands, getting up and walking away, sending a message to Urahara.

This was no longer his problem.


	7. Luckymura 5

Mami was practically walking on air when it came to her new partner. While Homura didn’t really emote much, she was nice, and didn’t judge her like so many other magical girls had for hunting familiars. She went off on her own occasionally… but if that was what it took for her to feel comfortable, especially since they were somewhat forced into a partnership.

It was just… really nice. She wished Kyubey was around so she could have both of her friends talk, but he'd been conspicuously absent.

It was roughly the day before Homura transferred in, and now they were going off to hang out together as a short break. Technically, it was an attempt to get Homura out of her shell, but she hadn’t had the most luck with that yet. So they had mostly been bouncing between locations.

Which had led her to remembering a certain kind of place Kyoko liked to go to.

Arcades.

Homura’s expression didn’t change when she brought her in, but it rarely did, so she took her around to play some of the games. Although Homura mostly watched her, or joined her for the shooting games. The girl was somehow even more accurate than her most of the time, rarely missing.

But after a while the sun set, so they began to leave. Which was when she noticed a certain plush toy in a nearby claw machine.

A small mouse plushie.

It was adorable.

She immediately walked over, Homura following behind wordlessly. She then inserted a coin, and then moved the claw into position, dropping it and- the mouse slipped through.

She put in another coin, and tried again, but with similar results. After a few tries, she was almost willing to just leave and forget about it. She probably wasn't going to get it.

"Could I make an attempt?" She heard from behind her. She turned to Homura, who seemed almost nervous, and nodded.

Mami watched as Homura walked in front of the machine, and made her attempt, the claw being moved, then lowering and grabbing the mouse-

It worked!

The mouse plush was grabbed, and then dropped into the compartment. Homura then pulled it out, giving it an odd look, before handing it to her.

She smiled, taking it, and then giving the girl a hug as she said. "Well someone must have been practicing!"

She heard some mumbles in response, which she was pretty sure had been something along the lines of, "Not really…" but it didn’t really matter.

As she let go of the girl, who quickly took a step back, she knew she would have to give her the best first day tour!


	8. Soulmate au 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a world where soulmates have many meanings, tattoos showing the connection to the other/'s are a fact of life.

Sayaka isn't really sure what to feel right now. she got so distracted watching Mami and Kyoko that she didn't even notice the projectile until it was about to hit her.

Then the transfer student took the hit. she seemed to have been trying to put up a barrier... but she didn't get it up in time. and she went down.

Now they were bringing  ~~ Homura ~~ transfer student back to Mami's house to recover. hopefully she would wake up soon so they could find out where she lived.  ~~ and so she could thank her for saving her ~~ ~~-~~ Madoka looked really worried.  ~~ she was to ~~

\-------------------------------

As they set homura down and settled in. Sayaka saw how uncomfortable Kyoko looked. Not like she could blame her considering she had just been fighting Mami, and the only reason it had ended was because someone else got hurt.

While they waited Kyoko visibly got more on edge. Even after Mami brought out tea and snacks she looked like she was a loud sound away from bolting. "Hey what the hell are you staring at!" Kyoko yelled at her with an angered expression.

"Nothing, I was just... distracted." Sayaka replied.

"tch, just don't do it again." Kyoko turned her attention to Akemi. "Who's this girl anyways? why was she dumb enough to get herself shot?"

"She's a classmate of ours," Madoka said. "she has been around and... she's been telling us that we shouldn't contract."

Sayaka didn't have much to add to that. then Kyoko said "Jeez another hero girl huh Mami?"

Mami replied with "I... didn't think so... she's been pretty hostile to us. She even attacked Kyubey!"

Kyoko seemed surprised "really? you mean this girl has been hostile towards ya and now she took a bullet for ya???" everyone looked away at that. then Kyoko got an annoyed look in her eyes, as she reached over to Homura.

"Wait what are you doing!?" Sayaka whisper-yelled.

"She's probably hiding something," Kyoko replied as she grabbed transfer student’s sleeve. "What even is her name?"

Fuck we never even told her that "Oh its Homura Akemi-" Kyoko _flinched_ , **hard**. which caused her to pull down Akemi's sleeve, showing the mess of colors underneath it.

they all blanched as they looked at the collection of names all over her arm, most black outlined, and a good chunk were _warped_ , but... while there were some that were still completely silver... most of them were black outlined ones filled with various colors. Kyoko flinched back after a moment with a horrified "What the fuck?!" Sayaka didn't blame her, the names seemed to contradict everything she knew about soulmate tattoos. And as she looked she saw Kyoko’s and Mami’s warped and outlined names… no wonder Kyoko was startled. She looked at Mami and saw her mildly horrified face. Finding out you just shot your soulmate, accidently or not, can’t be fun.

As she continued looking she breathed a sigh of relief to the fact that none of the others were familiar. At least, none of the other recognizable ones. Two of them were warped more than any of the others, and were practically unrecognizable. What were the chances tha-

That first letter was an M, she wasn't entirely sure she was correct… but it was barely recognizable as an M, and if she squinted- Madoka gasped before she could read it, as she looked at her, she made an assumption… it was probably Madoka’s name wasn’t it… shit.

She immediately set about trying to decipher the last name, it couldn’t possibly be someone she knew  it couldn’t be  _ her _ . There was just no way, but all the others… as she stared at it… no…

It took her a bit... 

But against all odds, it was her name.

**What**


	9. Soulmate au 2

Madoka didn’t know what was happening, she had suspected Homura was probably her soul mate, but Homura hadn’t confirmed anything. Even after she had introduced herself. She was pretty sure Sayaka had just assumed that it was a different Homura Akemi and left it at that after Homura’s weird question to her. Mami had ended up assuming the same when she learned Homura’s name. The biggest oddity was that all three of their marks had shifted from silver to white around march 16th, but none of them had seen Homura on that day, so they assumed that something odd was up with their probably shared soulmate and decided Homura would have acted differently towards them if she was their soulmate. 

… Madoka remembered back when they were smaller, her and Sayaka had talked about having a shared soulmate, and even when their parents said it was probably just someone with the same name, they had continued to fantasize about it for a couple years. Hitomi had always been a bit jealous of their odd shared trait, but it wasn’t anything they could change.

Now she was sitting across the room from the soulmate she shared with Sayaka, Mami, Kyoko, and several other people apparently???

Although that still left the marks themselves… Homura’s marks were… Half of them seemed to break every rule soul marks had. They were just so… _warped._ She didn’t know what they could possibly mean. Black was supposed to symbolize the death of the other, and completely overtake any other colors on the name when the soulmate dies. But those black outlines were still there, defying logic just by being there…

What happened to you Homura?

What happened to warp your marks beyond recognition even though most of us haven’t even known you very long?

\------------------------------------------------

Mami wasn’t sure what she was feeling right now, she felt rather hollow honestly. This should be a happy occasion, meeting her soulmate, the person linked intrinsically to her. But everything was wrong. Homura was hostile, unfriendly, and had even attacked her oldest friend. But when Sayaka was in danger because of her mistake… Homura protected her. 

That wasn’t even mentioning the marks, she had tried using some cleaning products to try to remove anything that wasn’t actually a soulmark, but nothing had worked. She had figured, soul marks were almost impossible to replicate as you could always _tell_ upon a look it was the real thing. Granted she had hoped that the weird parts like the black outlines had been weird additions, but they seemed as real as the rest. 

“What the hell…” Kyoko half-heartedly spoke. 

“Language please.” Mami replied with about the same amount of energy. She just couldn’t muster the energy to truly care about something so minor while she continued staring at the marks. 

Maybe they could ask Homura when she woke up? But if she hadn’t told them before why would she tell them now… looking back, she hadn’t been very kind to Homura, and given everything… Homura had probably known, and stood there while her soulmate insulted her like some… playground bully. 

… No wonder Homura acted so closed off, if others had done the same… to the point that she didn’t even react when her soulmate insulted her to her face… Homura’s life must have been a hard one. 

That's when a bit of movement caught her eye. Homura had opened her eyes and was staring at them with a shocked and confused expression on her face.


	10. Soulmate au 3

Everything was dark and she was so _tired_. Homura could feel where her stomach _ached_... 

It was so hard to muster up any energy, she felt like she was going to puke. **_everything hurt._** Where was she…? She couldn’t remember where she was… or how she got here. But she couldn’t muster up the energy to open her eyes… when she heard a voice…? Another voice responded. It was so hard to think, memories bombarded her from so many timelines, slowly crushing her capacity to think. But she remembered she hadn’t been on good terms with anyone this timeline.

Which meant at least two unknowns or hostiles were currently watching her. She immediately shut off her feelings to her body. It still hurt, but it was far more bearable. Soul magic maybe? Had someone tampered with her soul gem? ~~had someone messed with her soul marks?~~

She immediately opened her eyes, ready to _destroy_ whoever had captured her- 

…

Mami?

Mami was looking at her with a worried and shocked expression. Homura checked the area with her eyes, and saw Madoka, Sayaka, and Kyoko as well. It all came rushing back. Kyoko came back early this timeline to try and take the territory, and in the resulting fight she instinctively tried to protect Sayaka and ended up taking a bullet ~~dammit, she had thought she managed to distance herself from everyone other than Madoka.~~

Madoka seemed to manage to finally get past her shock “A-are you okay Homura?” Madoka asked her.

… she took a more comprehensive tally of her situation, they were all here, _her arm was bare_ , **_The Incubator_** was sitting quietly on the counter, _watching_ , and her fucking _everything_ still _**hurt**_. 

She couldn’t deal with this today.

She transformed and before anyone could react she activated her time stop. Freezing everyone.

She looked at them again, they looked shocked, and most of them were reaching for her.

She walked past them, ~~please don’t, please let them help you just once~~ and slowly walked home. She had to slow down further or even stop at times, it was so hard to walk straight, and she almost emptied her stomach several times.

When she finally got home, she immediately dropped into bed, and fell asleep.


	11. Soulmate au 4

Kyoko had always dreamed about meeting her soulmate. Before _that day_ she had loved her fantasies that her soulmate would come along and be her best friend ~~or her lover~~. Maybe the person could help with all the stuff happening with her father. Then she made her wish and she met Mami. It had taken a while, but they had eventually shown each other their soulmate tattoos, and found out their soulmate their soulmates shared a name, or that they shared a soulmate. It was hard to tell as the marks were always written in their own handwriting. It had been nice to have that extra connection though.

Then _that day_ happened, and everything fell apart. She distanced herself from Mami and went off to hunt witches and survive. She had acted like she didn’t need anyone. But she had always secretly wished to be back on a team with Mami, or to have her soulmate appear and help her.

Then she found her soulmate. Homura Akemi. A girl fucking dumb enough to take a magic bullet for one of her soulmates. 

Kyoko felt sick just thinking about how that had been her fault in the first place.

To make things worse Homura’s marks had been… _awful_ to look at. She didn’t have words for how incomprehensibly _wrong_ most of them were. She wanted a goddamn explanation. ~~she wanted to know why her own soulmark with outlined in **BLACK**~~

So when Homura woke up, she was ready for some goddamn answers ~~and hopefully to finally be able to talk to the one person who should be able to understand her.~~

Then Homura transformed and _disappeared_. Kyoko quickly lunged but whatever Homura had done, it wasn’t invisibility. What was a problem was how the blueberry had the same idea and they crashed into each other mid air. “Fucking shit! Why the hell did you copy me!”

“I didn’t copy you, I just jumped! If anything you copied me!” Blueberry replied.

Just as she wound herself up for an argument, she looked around, and remembered that Homura was just _gone_. “... what the hell happened, she was here just a moment ago… but now I can’t even sense her magic…” 

_”I’m not sure, I’ve seen her use the technique a few times, but I don’t know what it actually is yet.”_ Kyubey replied.

… right, there was a source of info here on magical girls. Maybe he knew what was going on? ~~was it Homura's wish? What would that even be caused by?~~ She didn’t exactly trust him, not after _T_ _hat Day_ , but any info would be helpful. “Hey! Do you know what's going on with her soul marks Kyubey?”

Kyubey tilted his head and said _”No, I wasn’t even aware soul marks could look like that. My guess is some form of soul manipulation did it. Although I am unaware of any magical girls or witches that could do something like this.”_

“... You mean some **body** fucker messed with her soul!?” She and blueberry looked at each other. They had almost the same train of thought on this.

Good. she would probably need somebody backing her up when it came to their shared soulmate, and while blueberry wasn’t a magical girl, she seemed to at the very least be on the same wavelength when it came to her.

_”As I said that is my best guess, but I have no idea how it would cause this.”_

…

Ya

When Kyoko found out who messed with Homura's soul.

She would make sure to burn them to ash herself.


	12. soulmate au 5

She was really worried. Homura had disappeared after she asked… Was it because of her that Homura left? She didn’t know. To make things worse Kyubey had said it was likely someone or something had been actively messing with Homura’s soul. Who would do such a thing? What would they stand to gain from something like that? 

After a while they came to a consensus that they would talk to homura at school tomorrow, Kyoko would have to sneak in with a spare uniform, but they would all hopefully be able to talk to Homura around lunch time.

\---

When she saw Homura enter the classroom, she already knew something was wrong. Homura had bags under her eyes and seemed to have some difficulty walking straight. When she got to her seat, instead of gracefully sitting down like normal, she almost seemed to fall into the chair. Even Saotome seemed worried, and didn’t call upon Homura for anything. Which was probably for the best because Homura didn’t even seem to be paying attention.

When class ended, Madoka walked over before Homura could leave, which wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be considering Homura was moving rather slowly in general. “H-hey, um, Could I take you to the nurses office?” She asked.

Homura almost seemed ready to disagree, but then she swayed on her feet, and would have fallen if Sayaka hadn’t stuck around and grabbed her right before she did. “...I guess I don’t really have much choice in the matter.” Homura seemed pained and frustrated by the admission, like her small bit of weakness was an affront.

She started walking with Homura to the nurses office, Sayaka also didn’t stop supporting Homura, even if she shifted a bit so that she looked more like she was just putting her arm over Homura’s shoulder. Madoka’s heart broke a little as Homura looked slightly relieved but extremely confused by Sayaka’s actions. ~~if Madoka’s heart pinched a bit at seeing them so close to each other, it was nobody's business but her own.~~

After they got her there and laid her down, they had to go to their next class, so they couldn’t stick around. They did telepathically inform Mami and Kyoko about what happened though.

Needless to say by the time lunch rolled around they all were on edge and quickly made their way to the nurses office. Where Homura seemed rather shocked to see them. Then her face seemed to harden into a mask. They all stopped and seemed to lose a bit of their confidence, they didn’t quite know how to approach… everything really.

Sayaka seemed to rally her confidence first “Hey, Homura. you doing alright?” she asked.

Homura seemed to hold herself back for a moment and then said “I will be fine, I just need to rest a day” Madoka watched as Homura’s fists _clenched_ when she said she would need to rest. She seemed angered by the very thought that she had to rest.

Kyoko visibly lost whatever little patience and doubts she had and stepped forward “Hey! Why the hell are you in such poor condition, I know for a fact that I’ve healed faster for worse wounds! So why are you in such terrible condition?!” Homura seemed shocked at the outburst, then took a look at Mami- wait, no. It was toward where Kyubey was sitting on Mami’s shoulder.

“I have no reason to tell any of you. Now are you going to leave?” Kyoko seemed about to yell back at her, when Homura said “do you really think they won’t figure out you aren’t from the school if they see you in here? Just go have your lunches, I don't want to talk to anyone.” they all considered arguing… but she had a point, so they quickly moved to the roof. Kyubey also had to go off to do something. So the four of them were alone up there.

Homura had seemed so unsteady, tired, _weak_. Kyoko had a point, Homura shouldn’t be in such bad condition… So why was she? She didn’t appear to have any physical injuries. So what else could it have been…? Something with her soul marks? But what would- she remembered something. While soul marks could be used as a connection, if there was dissonance between soulmates soulmarks, and soulmate/soulmates touched the soulmarks of their partner, even if it wasn’t their specific soulmark… as long as there was a disconnect between the soulmarks… The person touched could experience anything from minor discomfort, to vertigo, to actual lasting pain. Madoka looked down at her mostly white soulmark. _she wanted to vomit._

Even if it hadn’t been intentional. Mami had… Mami had probably…

The others seemed to finally notice how quiet she was being “Figure something out Madoka?” Sayaka asked her

Madoka swallowed. “I-I think that due to the dissonance of our soulmarks, I think Mami m-may-” She swallowed down bile. “She may have been u-unintentionally torturing Homura last night…” 

The rooftop was silent. Kyoko looked nauseous and furious. Sayaka sat down and just stared into her hands, and then at Mami, switching seemingly at random. Mami seemed to not even be able to comprehend it, then it seemed to set in for her. She fell to her knees and began crying.

Madoka walked over, kneeled down, and hugged her.

When had things gotten so messed up?


	13. Soulmate au 6

The bombardment of nightmares was constant, but no matter how many memories she re-lived she didn’t wake up. She couldn’t, even when she got closest to consciousness she couldn’t get up. Couldn’t even open her eyes. Everything _hurt_. She couldn’t muster the energy to do anything. So she fell right back into the nightmares. ~~_**they** kept on dying. Over and over and over and over and over and oVER-_~~

When she finally woke up, she could barely think. Everything still _hurt_. She glared down at her soul marks. They _itched_ like they always did nowadays. She had long since gotten used to it. But all these marks were so _annoying_. Without them things like this wouldn’t happen. Even the marks she didn’t know couldn’t be normal. She glared down at the one named “Ichigo Korusaki”. It had done so much weird stuff in the past. From fading out to cracking, to those times it seemed to be trying to get bigger. 

In her half asleep painful delirium she had a thought. She pulled up one of those “meet your soulmate” sites and after making an account, posted. 

With that done she thought about what she would need to do for the day, and cringed when she realized it was a school day. Considering her terrible luck, if she skipped today _somehow **both**_ Madoka and Sayaka would manage to contract. So she forced herself to swallow some pain meds, and slowly made the trip to school.

Then she got to the classroom.

And she realized she made a mistake.

Just looking at Madoka and Sayaka caused the bombardment of memories to continue. She sat down as fast as she could, and looked forward. Trying to parse through her memories.

\---

When classes ended they walked back to the nurses office and found out Homura had already left part way through classes. Of course. They still didn’t know where she lived either. So they were well and truly boned there. They couldn’t do _anything_ for Homura. Which wasn’t great considering Mami seemed like all she wanted to do was apologize.

God everything was so stressful today… Maybe she should visit Kyousuke? That would be nice. After talking to the others Madoka joined her.

She ended up talking to one of the receptionists while waiting for his parents to finish their visit. Which wasn’t that weird, even if this was a receptionist she didn’t normally see. Granted she usually visits on other days.

Then she said “Oh! You two remind me of an old patient that left recently, she was even the same age as you two, and I'm pretty sure she ended up going to the same school as you two, is she doing alright?”

Sayaka snorted “I only know one new transfer student, and while Homura is" ~~heroic, protective, hurt~~ "kind, I-”

“Oh so you do know her!” that stopped Sayaka in her tracks. “Oh and first names already! You must be great friends! I was worried honestly, she was so shy, and with her glasses, braids, and having not been in school for a while I wasn’t sure she would be able to make friends, especially not so quickly!”

Sayaka, looked at madoka. Madoka stared right back. “When did she leave the hospital again?” she asked.

“I think it was on the sixteenth? That sounds right.” Sayaka's blood ran cold. Homura had been almost entirely different, _less than two weeks ago._

And the change, whatever had done it to her. Whatever had hurt her and done who knows what to her soul bonds. Had likely done it on the sixteenth. 

Their own had turned white on that day after all.


	14. Soulmate au 7

When Blueberry called Mami saying she had news, Kyoko wasn’t convinced.

When Blueberry told them Homura had been drastically different, likely before whatever warped her soulmarks, Kyoko ate her words. She was even a little impressed this girl had actually managed to find some info. So the current timeline was that she left the hospital on the sixteenth, and then _something_ had attacked her. _Had likely hurt her immensely_. If it was so new, Kyoko could even understand why Homura didn’t even trust her soulmates. She was like a cat, licking her wounds in solitude, and they had poured salt on them. 

… Although… Homura just not trusting her soulmates obviously wasn’t the full story. If she thought the concept and application was stupid, she wouldn’t have put herself in the way and risked death for one of hers. So she obviously had a bit more than the normal feelings someone would have for strangers… probably. Homura could also just be a suicidal idiot. 

No matter how much she thought about it though, every explanation felt a little wrong. Even the one about Homura just being angry about the accidental torture. Especially as that had been after the marks changed.

She felt like there was info she was missing though. She just couldn’t quite figure out how the girl would go completely super stone cold stoic like the rest said she had in just a week-

… Wait.

They were magical girls.

“Hey! Kyubey!” She called, startling Mami.

When Kyubey quickly came, Kyoko wasn’t surprised. _“What can I do for you?”_ He asked, expression the same as it always was.

“What are the limits of a wish? I never actually asked that.”

Kyubey tilted his head. “It varies a bit depending on the potential of the magical girl. But theoretically the only wish I cannot truly grant is bringing back the dead, and even that can be done if you wish quick enough.”

… Fuck.

FUCK!

She felt her expression get angry, so she quickly ate a pocky and focused on it. Pretending that was all she wanted to know.

Homura was evidently able to move locations extremely fast when she wanted to. Her soulmarks were also weirdly varied. Most notably were the ones with black outlines. Kyubey had also said he didn’t know when she contracted.

Mother fucking bullshiting asshole!

She hated that her random hunch actually held some ground.

After all, if the only way for black to show up on a name was for someone to die, then they must have died. Kyubey couldn’t revive the dead either.

_But he didn’t say anything about affecting time._

She almost wanted to throw the conclusion away out of hand. But it would explain so much about the state of their soulmarks and Homura’s ‘teleportation’.

It also left her with a problem.

If she was right, if Homura was a time traveler, one who had likely seen them die several times considering how their marks differed and some were still blank.

**_Then what the hell did the warping mean?_ **

… Ya, until she had something more concrete, she wasn’t telling the rest. Especially since she had noticed Homura’s eyes specifically locking onto Kyubey both times they met. Homura didn’t trust Kyubey.

So Kyoko wouldn’t either.


	15. Soulmate au 7

Kyoko sat at Mami’s table, eating the dinner she had cooked. It hadn’t been that long, yet she was pretty sure she was currently the person who knew most about this situation. Besides Homura herself anyways. Still, only a day had passed since she had met her soulmate. The girl who was probably a time traveler. The girl who had likely seen them all die several times at least. Hell, given the countless overlapping broken frames around pinkies and blueberries names, she’d likely seen them contract. Several times.

She wished she remembered how many there had been. They were likely the only ballpark of a halfway decent indicator for how many times Homura had gone ‘back’. She remembered there had been many though.

… She wondered whether she would ever be able to touch Homura’s marks without torturing her… or if Homura would have to live with dissonant marks for the rest of their lives, however long they would last as magical girls.

Wait… If Homura’s power is time manipulation, she likely just stopped time last night and- 

_**Oh.** _

_**THAT DUMBASS!** _

_Homura had walked home in stopped time! When the day afterward she’d barely been able to walk!_

When Kyoko got her hands on Homura, she would make sure she’s back to normal condition, then she would wring her neck for being such a moron!

She sped up her eating, using it as a distraction from all her _burning_ rage.

\---

Urahara heard as one of his programs alerted him.

He recognized that specific alert sound as the one keeping an eye out for whoever Ichigo’s soulmate was.

He quickly moved over and checked it. Huh, the name, “Homura Akemi” did match Ichigo's mark. He wondered why she chose today though. Maybe it had been a bad day? Or maybe she had just finally scrounged up the time to do so? Who knows. But he definitely forwarded Ichigo the link as he looked deeper into the account.

It was a new one, and Homura lived in Mitakihara. It took some hacking, but with a bit of work he managed to get into her medical and soulmark records-

Well. This was interesting. This fourteen year old had a heart condition and quite a few soulmarks on file. The whole Korusaki family of course, why would they not somehow share a soulmate. But also several others. It took him a bit to look into them, but it was mostly just girls of a similar age who went to her new school from what he could find. As well as a girl called Kyouko Sakura who had run off after her father killed her whole family and himself who was unaccounted for.

Hmm, he pulled up her school records out of boredom, worst comes to worst it wouldn't show anything- 

Well then, he’d thought that had all been mildly interesting. But this was moreso. She was apparently acing all of her classes. Including PE. He double checked how long her recovery had been. As well as her previous school grades.

This was getting _really_ interesting. By all rights she should be quite behind. Even if she had used her time in the hospital to study, that still wouldn’t explain her suddenly breaking records in PE. A subject she had never been good at because of her heart condition. Especially after an extended hospital stay.

… Did she unlock some form of powers? Either due to the connection to Ichigo or some other factor?

He turned back to the conversation that Ichigo had added on to. Ichigo had managed to set up a visit next weekend. Hmmm. He might have to go himself, even if it's at a distance. That was _very_ interesting.


	16. Soulmate au 8

Homura woke up, gasping in air as she drove down her panic. Still deeply feeling the physical aches, she slowly calmed down, then got up.

She wasn’t feeling quite as miserable as she had yesterday, but that was a pretty low bar at this point. Not to mention that, while she had gotten somewhat better physically, her head was still a mess, and last night she hadn’t even had the exhaustion from before to keep her asleep.

So now everything _a_ _ched_ , her soulmarks _itched_ , her brain was still recovering from basically being forced to relive her _trauma_ , and she was _relatively sleep deprived._

So when Kyoko appeared in front of her on her way to school, she wasn’t surprised, or impressed. The girl had obviously tracked her power, not that that was likely pretty hard given the splitting headache keeping her from suppressing it.

Then Kyoko walked over to her, quickly grabbing her hand before she could move back. “Don’t run off now dumbass, in fact,” Before she could react, Kyoko had lifted her up, and was walking her back the way she came. Ignoring the weak attempts she threw to try to get herself down. “You are going back home, and you’re going to rest like a normal fucking person.”

She continued her ineffective struggles anyways. She couldn’t be away from the others, _she couldn’t let them contract._ ~~No matter how much she wanted to just accept her soulmates words, how much she trusted the only other magical girl she could consistently get on her side-~~ “I can’t, I have to-”

Kyoko just pulled her closer against herself, leaned in, and whispered. “Look, we have a lot to talk about. Especially since I'm pretty sure I figured out your secret.” She froze at that, but then Kyoko leaned back a bit more, and continued in a normal voice. “Now where's your fucking house you dumbass, none of the other idiots know yet, although I suspect they will find a way. So lets get there and get you looking like you weren’t just run over by a fucking witch.” She tried to retort, but she was exhausted, and the feeling of having one of her soulmates carrying her… carrying her without any malicious intent, or suspicions… it made her feel like she could relax, just a little.

She fell asleep shortly after telling Kyoko where she lived.

\---

Kyoko looked at the, now sleeping, girl in her arms. It was oddly unnerving, seeing the girl who had seemingly been so desperate to reject help, in such a state.

She wasn’t sure what had happened in past timelines to cause Homura’s shift, but she felt a _warmth_ when she realized just how much Homura must trust her given how the girl had been acting before.

So Kyoko was left to stew in her thoughts as she brought Homura home, thankfully managing to get the key from the girl's pocket and quickly putting the girl in bed. She was about to get up and get some stuff ready for their conversation, but the moment she let go, Homura started looking pained, and began moving around. Causing Kyoko to quickly put a hand back on Homura, the girl calming down from the simple touch.

… she guessed her options were to stay still for a couple hours, or nap. If only to keep whatever nightmares were in her head away, which the girl definitely needed given the bags currently under her eyes.

She sighed as she laid down, this dumbass soulmate of hers owed her a goddamn explanation after this.


	17. Soulmate au 9

Mami woke up, feeling confused as she felt like something was off, then she saw Kyoko. Her brain shifted to a mile a minute, trying to remember what had happened. Then she remembered.

Homura, her soulmate.

Who she’d practically bullied.

Who she’d _shot_.

Who she’d _**tortured**_.

God she felt _sick_.

The person supposed to be her other half… at least to a point considering Homura was also the other half of so many others… she’d be _immensely_ lucky if Homura _ever_ forgave her. Not that she deserves it.

But she would try her hardest to make up for it. ~~She would spend the rest of her life trying to atone if she had to.~~

After making breakfast in an attempt to stop her mutinous thoughts, she ended up heading to school. Kyoko just transformed and headed off, saying she had “something to do.”

She was impatient for lunch to roll around, waiting desperately to get a chance to apologize to Homura, caught up in the whirlpool of her thoughts.

Then Mami met up with Madoka and Sayaka. Who said Homura hadn’t shown up that day. Which caused her to realize she hadn’t felt the girls power at all, she almost couldn’t believe she’d missed that, if it wasn’t for all of the thoughts already running through her head. God she was a terrible soulmate, always focusing on herself. ~~she didn’t notice her soul gem slowly getting darker, bit by bit.~~

She tried sending a telepathic message to Kyoko, albeit only after the other two managed to hold her back from just leaving to search for herself, but her messages seemed to be being ignored? Just as she was about to go out anyways, Kyoko finally responded. _”whaddya want Mami?”_

She tried to convey her desperation as she replied. _'_ _I need you to find Homura! She didn’t show up to school today, and I’m immensely worried!”_

There was silence from Kyoko for a moment. _”I am currently taking care of Homura, don’t worry about her, and I would suggest not tracking us down. There's too high a chance she’ll spook if there's any more of us. Now don’t bother me for now, I’ll update you when stuff happens”_ before she could get a word out past her shock, Kyoko cut the connection.

She wasn’t quite relieved, especially as she still couldn’t apologize, but at least she knew the girl wasn’t in any trouble, and that was enough for now. ~~It had to be.~~

\---

When Kyoko felt something move, she immediately woke up, then realized where she was and what she was doing rather quickly by the eyes staring, shocked, into hers.

She was in Homura’s house, spooning the girl.

She quickly jumped back, removing her arms in embarrassment. Homura blushing lightly, and just looking confused.

Unfortunately, that nice, normal moment couldn’t last. Leaving them sitting next to each other at Homura’s table, Kyoko on the girls left, where fewer soulmarks rested. She would’ve sat across from the girl, but she felt that was probably a poor choice of action at this point. The girl needed comfort, even if she would never ask, the dumbass.

When she said what she’d figured out, Homura stared at her in shock, whispering. “... that’s… basically correct…” But she was quickly informed of the details, or at least the major ones.

After that little info dump… she didn’t have a lot to say. “Fuck.” that worked actually, encapsulated her feelings about this bullshit nicely.

“You actually believe me?” Homura seemed to be caught between denial, confusion, fear, sadness, and just a bit of hope, the disparate emotions warring in her eyes.

She hugged her, and responded. “Ya you dumbass, I believe you, about everything. So we are going to just stay here for a bit while I decide to deck you or not for being a dumbass.”

Homura stared at her in shock, as hope won out.

Then she broke down crying in Kyoko’s arms.

It felt… awkward, but she needed all this.

Even if it made her feel a bit weird.


	18. Soulmate au 10

Madoka was hanging out with her two friends, after she’d gotten the message from Mami, she realized she wouldn’t be able to do anything. She tried to invite Mami, but she declined all the invitations and went home. Madoka was worried, but let her. The magical girl would be alright, she was strong, and if she needed help she’d come to them. ~~_... right…?_~~ Besides, finding out Homura was being taken care of would take a load of Mami’s shoulders… right? 

For now though… she hung out with her two best friends, talking about normal, mundane things. Both her and Sayaka avoided the topic of magical girls, for their friend, and themselves. She was happy to finally have a chance to just… be normal again. Her life had been growing less and less normal as the month progressed, first with being slowly drawn into the world of magical girls, and then finding out not only who her soulmate was, but that something was _wrong_ with their soulmarks.

She would help Homura. She wished she knew what to do though. She almost considered wishing to know, but Homura had seemed so against contracting… she didn’t want to stomp on what little the girl asked of her.

After a while, Hitomi had to leave for classes. Leaving her and Sayaka alone. They hung out for a few more hours, even ending up at her house afterward for a relatively impromptu sleepover because neither wanted to be alone tonight, Junko convincing Sayaka’s parents.

The next day, Homura still didn’t show up. But they got a message from Kyoko, who was using Homura’s phone to create a group chat, that the girl needed at least one more day of recovery, and that she seemed to hate that anyone saw her while she was ‘weak’. So they should wait till she’s a bit better, for her comfort at least.

So they waited, Mami visibly looking nervous and worried when they saw her, but always hiding it. Madoka tried to comfort her, but Mami deflected everything she tried. She was getting concerned, but it would hopefully be over tomorrow. Kyoko had said she’d managed to convince Homura after a while to let them come over then, on the weekend.

Madoka wouldn’t miss this chance.

\---

Ichigo stood outside the door to the apartment of his soulmate, the girl named Homura Akemi. He was honestly a little nervous, depending on what had happened on her end, being his soulmate likely hadn’t been a fun experience, he’d heard from Kisuke that people who’s soulmate’s hollowfied experienced pain, and while he wasn’t entirely sure of the consequences of all the things he’d been through… Chances were the girl would want some answers at the very least.

Although he was curious about the odd purple border around her name, he could wait for an explanation. Although he knew he had to make a good impression. His family wanted to meet her too, but she only felt up to being introduced to one soulmate at first. He could understand that, especially since she was about the same age as his sisters. She was likely just a cautious person.

Then the door opened, revealing a red haired girl. She looked him up and down in shock- shit, he could feel the power coming off this girl. He always forgot that new people weren’t prepared for that. He quickly tried to rein in his reiatsu, with questionable success, but the girl relaxed a bit. “You’re Ichigo Korusaki right?” She asked.

He quickly responded. “Yeah… are you-” before he could continue, she interrupted him.

“My name’s Kyoko Sakura, now get in here and talk to this dumbass!” The girl quickly walked further in, leaving him scrambling to follow the abruptness for a moment. He was honestly getting vibes similar to Rukia from her.

Then he saw his soulmate sitting on a couch, with a blank look on her face. She watched him walk over and sit down. “I’m Ichigo Korusaki, you’re Homura Akemi right?” She nodded in response. He quickly checked his mark, and saw it change more to a white then a silver, she didn’t even bother raising her sleeve, just watching his mark shift. “Well, I suppose I should ask whether anything… weird. Happened with your soulmark.”

“Many weird things.” she fired back, and he cringed as she went over them, and then left him in silence. It took him a minute to get himself together, but he did. Going over anything she asked, when she asked. She seemed shocked, but listened to him talk for… a while.

By the end, she just stared at him, then said five words. “Use your hollow mask now.” he cringed, and tried to object, but she continued. “It will help you prove what you just said, so please, put it on. I can take the pain.

Kyoko glared at the girl at that, but didn’t object. After a minute to think about it, he put a hand over his face. It was a way to truly, and quickly prove his claims.

As he put it on, he watched Homura wince in pain. He almost ripped off the mask, but she held up a hand to stop him. Watching him, and likely feeling for his reiatsu. 

Then, just as she opened her mouth, everything went to hell.

The door slammed open, as a girl wearing a weird costume and practically leaking hollow like reiatsu entered. While aiming a musket at him! “Are you the one who did it!?” she yelled. He was confused, and dispelled his hollow mask, hoping to de escalate. Especially as two more girls appeared in the doorway-

Then, three things happened in short succession.

Homura gasped, and quickly tried to move towards Mami.

Urahara shunpoed in, likely having been curious and then having seen the girl come in with a gun.

And a black gem on the golden haired girls head _exploded_.

When he opened his eyes from the sudden shockwave, he realized things were about to get complicated.

The area surrounding them which looked like a drug trip seemed like a pretty good indicator of that.


	19. Scarred au 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An au where Homura gets scars even after her magical girl healing. As well as her time travel. Because for some reason my brain really likes the idea.

Sayaka watched as Homura was healed by Urahara. She hadn’t been able to do anything, in fact, if it hadn’t been for her, Mami wouldn’t have been kidnapped, and Homura and Madoka wouldn’t have been hurt.

God she wanted to puke. Then Urahara narrowed his eyes. “Tessai! Get me experiment number 725!”

Tessai raised his eyebrows before he walked off, then came back with an odd looking rod. Urahara took it and aimed it at Homura while continuing to heal her, then he pressed the button- oh god.

Homura had scars across her face and around it, burns, scratches, and other things. _Then Urahara pulled up part of Homura’s shirt, expression grim._ There were so many more, countless scars littered Homura’s body. Some injuries looked new, but other than that, there were just… so many different ones. Bullet scars, starburst shaped ones, large swathes of new looking burn scars. There was a long slice shaped one that went from one side to the other. Several that looked like she’d been impaled. And many, many more.

Is this what magical girls looked like…? But she thought Homura said magical girls healed from anything- oh.

It used magic.

Homura was one of the most practical people she’d ever met, and had probably only begun using the… evidently illusion. After the scars got too numerous to hide, and that was assuming she didn’t normally hide them with more normal methods.

As she looked upon the sorts of injuries she likely would have gotten if she became a magical girl, she really began to understand why Homura had so actively discouraged them from contracting.

Homura really was a hero.  


\---

Urahara looked at the multitude of scars, and knew instantly something was up. Probably something to do with her soul gem if his theories about them were correct. But it didn’t bode well if her mental state was that bad, he would have to be more careful. The scars also really nailed in just how long she fought alone. How little she cared for anything other than success.

He wondered where she had learned the minor illusion technique she had been using, and how she had been it when she was unconscious.

He would have to ask her after this crisis was over, first thing was first. He had to keep her alive.

He told Tessai to get Orihime there. They would need her for this.


	20. Scarred au 2

When Madoka woke up and saw the scars covering Homura’s body, she felt an unbearable sadness. She almost could imagine exactly how most of them could happen. Visions of Homura getting critically injured more times than she could count passing through her vision in a heartbeat. She closed her eyes and shook her head, which managed to make the weird ~~memories~~ thoughts out of her head. She looked at the girl who had saved her life. The one who had been hiding how screed she was from her.

Madoka felt helplessness worm its way into her bones. She couldn’t help Homura fight. Couldn’t protect Homura like she protected her. Could only watch as Homura got more scars.

Then her determination solidified with one thought. 

She couldn’t protect Homura. But nothing would stop her from helping her. She would do her best to be there for the girl who had done her best to keep her and her friends safe. 

She would be a shoulder to cry on for the girl covered in countless scars etched into her from attempting to save others.


	21. Scarred au 3

When Homura woke up, she was in a terrible mood. She would hunt down and shatter Ayase Soju’s soul gem, possibly burn the body after taking Mami’s soul gem off it.

Then she noticed where she was, and the state of her illusions.

She immediately knew Urahara at least had seen, and he would probably at least tell the others from Karakura. The others who would know this shouldn’t be happening. 

This had gone so wrong already, and now **_this._**

… had Madoka and Sayaka seen? She hoped not. This was her burden to bear. A reminder of her failures. _A reminder of her sins._ she didn’t want those from Karakura to know about them, let alone her friends. It was what she got for her repeated attempts, for her mistakes. They shouldn’t have to worry about injuries that had, technically, never even happened.

She put up the minor illusion she had managed to learn from a certain version of Kyoko who had stopped subconsciously rejecting her magic. She wasn’t sure exactly what combination of factors had caused that outcome, but the small illusion was convenient for emergencies, or when she needed to rush. Then Madoka and Sayaka looked at her in panic as she stepped out with her response to the conversation. She hoped that was because of the injuries they had seen her take in the labyrinth instead of the extensive scarring, but that hope was dashed when Madoka immediately stood up and pulled her down between her and Sayaka for breakfast, in such a way that she touched the scar from when she hadn’t taken Sayaka quite seriously enough and had to reattach her hand in an earlier timeline. ~~she didn’t think of Sayaka’s horrified face when she had realized what she had done. _she didn’t_~~

The ~~worried~~ looks Sayaka was giving her seemed to be leaning towards where her face scars where. How… inconvenient. Urahara then gave her a look of his own. “So… Orihime just got finished recovering from healing your life threatening injuries. So I was thinking I would offer for her to heal those for you.” he said, his words causing Madoka and Sayaka’s faces to practically radiate happiness.

Just for her to dash their happiness in one go. “Unnecessary. They are… reminders of my mistakes. I can’t get rid of them.” Urahara didn’t look surprised, but Madoka and Sayaka just looked crushed. She wasn’t entirely sure why, it was the cost of her failures, not something they should worry about- the arms suddenly around her from both sides caused her to stiffen, but she slowly let herself relax for a minute. At least until she began eating.

She still had a soul gem to shatter. ~~and a friend to save.~~


	22. Scarred au 4

Isshin looked at the report Urahara had sent him. The report was filled with Homura’s injuries after the attack by Ayase Soju. he felt disturbed and deeply nauseous as he read about the long list of ‘fatal’ and ‘catastrophic’ wounds. 

Then there was the other part of the report. Her scars. The scars she definitely shouldn’t have. Especially as most of the ones Urahara had reported had to have been from after she was a magical girl. Far too many of them just… weren’t survivable. Not by a human. Urahara had managed to make a relatively complete list of all her major scars, cuts, bullet wounds, and countless others. Hell, she even had extensive, _and new_ , burn scars all over her body. He felt horrified as he remembered her recount of what happened after Walpurgisnacht, and he knew what had likely been the cause of them.

He shivered at the thought.

He also felt **rage**. Burning hot **_Antipathy_** at the world that had made a fourteen year old girl go through things not even _Ichigo_ had had to go through. At the tragedy of her life.

He could nearly feel the rage outpouring from his son too from over the phone, the anger driving his inner hollow so close to the surface that Isshin could not only hear it, but was surprised a hollow mask hadn’t started to form on his face even though he was still in his body.

Karin seemed to be having trouble processing it. Staring blankly at the copy she’d managed to grab. While Yuzu looked deeply horrified. At least before she began cooking as much as possible in an attempt to vent some of the emotions.

Making it worse was the fact that Urahara had said she’d rejected having them healed by Orihime. Which he could understand to a degree. He had met many shinigami who had scars they wouldn’t remove, even if they had the option. Scars that served as reminders, or lessons. 

But a child…?

He sighed, and rubbed his face.

He doubted any of them were getting much sleep that night.


	23. Hibernation (oneshot)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post ANAI fluffy MadoHomu nonsense.

Madoka watched her girlfriend as they walked out of school, Sayaka and Kyoko telling them to have fun on their date. It had taken them a while to finally get together, Madoka not wanting to possibly force Homura to do something she didn’t actually want because it would make her happy, and Homura was just incredibly oblivious, having very underdeveloped social skills. It had taken so long that Mami had gone to college already.

But now… they held hands as they walked down to get dinner, and Madoka was the happiest she’d ever been. Even as they walked, she leaned her head onto the girl's shoulder. She could feel happiness and satisfaction from Homura as she did. They ended up going to a restaurant, slowly talking together, and then going out for ice cream. Homura got vanilla with a bit of chocolate, while she got strawberry. After chatting happily together while eating, they headed to Homura’s apartment, both of them blushing as they did so. They had told her parents they would be going to be sleeping over together. She had barely survived how badly they’d teased her, but it wasn’t like that!

They ended up talking together in Homura’s apartment, putting on pajamas, and watching movies together as they cuddled together for several hours, slowly falling asleep.

Afterwards, they dragged themselves to bed, lying down and crashing. Cuddling together close as they fell asleep. Madoka could feel all the warmth and satisfaction from Homura… It was so… nice…

She… felt… so… sleepy…

So… pleasant…

Her consciousness faded away.

\---

Sayaka was getting impatient, those idiots had promised to show up to hang out today, but neither of them had responded when called. It had been over an hour, and then Kyoko suggested going to Homura’s apartment. But between everything, most of them were a little lazy, and she’d ended up drawing the short straw when they decided to find out who should go. She was pretty sure if Karin had been around, she would’ve volunteered, but it was useless to think about stuff like that.

As she got to the house, she yawned, knocking on the door as she did so.

No response.

She worriedly unlocked the door with the spare key she had been given for emergencies, and headed in. Not seeing anything odd at first, but as she made it outside the bedroom, looking through the open door and yawning, she saw them sleeping together. Madoka wrapped around Homura like a baby Koala, she snickered a little, taking a picture she was sure Karin would appreciate having, and that she could keep for when the girl had something on her.

“Yo, wake up sleepyheads!” She exclaimed slightly tiredly.

Tiredly…? She hadn’t been up that long…

Eh, whatever… looked like the girls weren’t waking up though. So she got closer. As she did so though, it became harder to move her limbs, like she was walking through molasses…

She yawned again…

Maybe… she could just… take a nap for a bit…

Wasn’t she supposed to hang out with her friends today though…?

She pinched herself- suddenly, she felt far more conscious, and realized what was happening. She immediately backpedaled away.

Goddammit Madoka, they thought she was past positive feedback loops!

She sighed, forming some water in her hands and splashing her face with it to fully wake herself up. Letting her think for a moment on how she was going to forcefully wake them up. Occasionally reapplying the water when the pleasant sleepiness started to muddle her again.

… you know… if they were going to play it like that…

She focused her powers, sending a not insignificant amount of water falling on their heads, shocking them awake and causing them to flail and sputter as they dealt with the sudden cold. “Good morning lovebirds!~ Sorry to say, but you two are very late! And somehow managed to get each other in a positive feedback loop of sleepiness, so I was forced to use drastic measures.~” Even though she used a sing-songy tone, given the glare coming from Homura, she was definitely going to pay for that later. Madoka just looked panicked and worried, quickly grabbing Homura, Causing both of them ~~at least from her perspective~~ to get ready before she could blink.

Given the way they were carefully not looking at her as they walked back to Mami’s house, they were hoping she wouldn’t tell anyone, and that it would just be forgotten.

Too bad she was going to tell everyone.


	24. Runes 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Homura tries to find a way, any way, to find some sort of weakness in Walpurgisnacht,

Homura fought on and on, trying again and again to protect Madoka. Trying everything, and gathering information to figure out _something_ that could help her defeat Walpurgisnacht. Even learning as much as she could about witches to attempt to find some sort of weakness. Even looking into their language to do so.

Witch runes were usually somewhere in a labyrinth, if you looked for them, but she had no idea what they said. Neither did Mami. Even the Incubator hadn’t found out anything, as there was no basis to learn from, and no reason to look into it. So she had to do it herself. It became something of a project in her spare time, trying to figure out _anything_ about the language.

Her first project was her own ring, which she could assume was… probably her own name. _So she did._ she tried, day after day. _learning._ the project didn’t seem to go anywhere for years, but she didn’t give up. She had no idea where else to look. No basis to experiment with. No one to help her, and while pipe bombs were useful, they weren’t _enough_.

Eventually, one night, she _focused_ , wanting to _read it_. Filled with grief from being unable to save Madoka, frustrated with her failures, trying over and over all night until she could feel her vision blurring, could feel her soul gem _getting close to the edge_.

Then she fell unconscious from overexertion.

When she woke up the next morning, she felt her anger simmer as she looked at her ring-

She could read it.

… What?

It was hard, _but she could read it_. It was unnerving, and almost felt like looking at the sun. Hurting her eyes and giving her a headache. But she _understood_.

Which was also when she realized how _dark_ her soul gem was, and purified it with a spare grief seed. When she looked at the ring again, she realized it was a bit harder to read than before, and that was with her knowing what it said.

… at least she appeared to have some degree of understanding now, so she could start looking for more info.

\---

It was hard, most words she looked like felt like they were attacking her brain. But she fought past the pain, and read other things. Mostly other girls ring at first, and occasionally something in a labyrinth if she had time to fight past the pain and process the word, or had enough grief seeds on hand to use time stop and read it. Most were just connected to the ‘theme’ of the witch. But she kept going. She kept _looking_.

Then one day, she was in the labyrinth of the first witch she’d ever seen. The witch that had tried to kill her before she could fight. Before she even had powers, and found a word.

She had spare grief seeds, so she stopped time, and _r_ _ead_. She watched it, feeling her migraine increase. When she finally _understood_ , a sudden stinging pain caused her to lose focus and accidentally drop the stop, given how color returned to everything. She was confused, no other word so far hard _hurt_ this much, hell no other sentence had.

“Why is _**Izabel**_ such an important word?” she asked herself.

Then she felt everything _shift_. Like the very nature of the labyrinth changed. It was _unnerving_. Especially since nothing had visibly changed-

She saw familiars. She’d been keeping mental tabs on them, but the sudden pain had kept her from noticing something important.

_They weren’t moving._ They were just _watching_ her.

She began moving, unnerved, closer to the center of the labyrinth. She’d kill the witch and be done with this oddity. She felt the stares as she ran through the labyrinth.

Then she finally got to the witch, and just as she was about to stop time, the witch _disappeared_ , as did the rest of the labyrinth. She knew the witch hadn’t run away, that wasn’t what that looked like- why was the world still frozen? Color was gone again, and she realized that _her shield hadn’t moved_.

_what was even happening?!_

She looked for anything else wrong, and realized one last thing. Her soul gem was completely cleansed.

… What had she done?


	25. Runes 2

Homura noticed something, ever so slowly. She felt more powerful, like she had _more_ magic then before. Not a lot more. But it was a distinctly _larger_ amount. It was… unnerving. Had she… absorbed the witch? What would that even mean for her…

Unfortunately, she was pretty sure she had. She could read runes better now. Not a lot better. But it was less painful then it had previously been. Not to mention… it was barely there, and most of the time it wasn’t even legible when she did hear it, but she could hear _whispers_. She normally couldn’t even understand them when she could hear them… but sometimes… it chilled her to the bone. The only good news was that the actual content of the whispers wasn’t all that bad, usually being about art. But it also occasionally asked for _”someone to see their art”._

She was concerned. To the point that she had gone to the Incubator at the end of the timeline and covertly asked about certain things before she went back. But they hadn’t given her any important information. So she had to make a choice, especially when she could still feel the power, and the whispers, when she went back.

She could never do this again, potentially abandoning this entire path of research, and just try to focus on saving Madoka, or she could take this further, potentially absorbing more witches so she could gain more power against Walpurgisnacht, even if it was just a small amount from every witch, and face whatever consequences this brought.

… The choice was obvious really. She would do _anything_ to protect Madoka, suffer any consequence to keep her safe. Not to mention grief seeds didn’t go back, but this did. This would be permanent, both the good and the bad. 

So she did it whenever she could, specifically hunting for the names in the labyrinths on more than one occasion. Absorbing even her friends witches, and countless copies. But no matter how powerful she became, she didn’t have a way to _apply_ it effectively. She didn’t have a way to _kill_ the Queen of Witches. 

The witches also bothered her, many growing stronger and stronger voices. Occasionally she had to do some odd task to make them be quiet for a time. Like eating cheese, or making art. It was demeaning, and she hated it. But it was better than them getting _louder_.

It distracted her.

When she watched _**Oktavia**_ be destroyed by Kyoko, with Madoka’s broken body in her hands, she felt grief fill her once again. But there was still a week left…

She ran, jumping on a random train to take her away.

What she didn’t expect to find, was Karakura. A place with more things she didn’t know, more things she could use, ~~people that cared about her,~~ and some interesting magical girls.

She watched as the family was shattered by Yuzu’s death, and was amazed by the _revival of Karin._

Witching could be undone.

… these people, they would help her. They would fight with her. _They believed her._

She hated it, but after Karin busted her time travel… she told them everything.


	26. Runes 2.5

Homura watched as she failed again, Madoka’s witch covering the horizon. She just watched, tears flowing down her face as she thought about what she could do. As Madoka had come early, far too early.

She still had over thirty minutes left, and if she was taken out…

She wasn’t sure she could run, the witch would likely accelerate its advance soon, and she was low on grief seeds. She wasn’t sure how fast it would become in thirty minutes, how much it would engulf. But she didn’t like her chances of getting away fast enough to escape the labyrinth.

Then the whispers started again, the witches waking from their fearful shock, and immediately fearfully murmuring about things like “get away”, “run”, “hide”, and “nononononono”.

She had a feeling that, based on the idea she just had, she would probably be counted as legally insane for even considering it.

But she had no other options.

She sped forward towards the labyrinth, bracing herself for the feeling as she entered. She shivered, the sudden blackness covering her as she entered the void. Homura felt the labyrinth trying to force her into submission. Making her relax, whispering that it was everything would be ok. Telling her to slow down and rest.

She ignored it, the voices within her head keeping her on task with their screaming as she bounced across the labyrinth. Quickly freezing time, which seemed to nullify most of the effect for now, the whispers of her countless witches doing the rest. Then running past everything, familiars and landscape alike, looking for those familiar runes.

Unfortunately, not only was there not a lot of landscape besides the void and countless floating platforms, but even when she did find runes, she could tell they were wrong. Always being about salvation and other things, but never the name. She went higher and deeper, looking for the name in this endless void. Burning through the last grief seed she had bothered gathering for emergencies to continue her search. 

After a while, she had burned her magic back down to critical levels. But she was pretty sure she had found the name, the runes not wanting to translate like the others.

The bad news was that it was directly on the ground in front of the witch’s core. The core shaped like a massive, darkness filled soul gem. Even with time stopped she could feel its sheer power.

She contemplated just trying to destroy it, but guessed it was far sturdier than it looked. So she quickly ran as close to the runes as she could. Dropping the stop to buy herself a bit more time before she witched, and _read_. The mental barrage trying to wear her down continuing immediately.

Thankfully, the witches within her had seen this before and had figured out enough to decide they would prefer her to survive. Defending her mind as best they could. She could feel a massive amount of magic building up in front of her, but she ignored it, reading it. Trying to understand. The name slowly weaving itself into something cohesive.

Just as the power in front of her hit critical, the name clicked.

_**”Kreimheld Gretchen!”**_ she yelled, feeling everything still. She watched as the witch and labyrinth slowly disappeared around her. Fading away slowly. She sat down, breathing in and out shakily as she felt everything calm down around her. It took almost the entirety of the time left in her shield before the labyrinth was completely gone, her soul gem fully restored. She went back right as the Incubator appeared, keeping it from finding out or saying anything.

Things were… weird after that. She hadn’t really felt an increase in power, and the witch never spoke. But she could feel it, like an eternal blanket of darkness. The witches presence felt vaguely comforting at least, if only as a side effect of her powers.

At least she never seemed to ask for anything.


	27. Runes 3

Urahara had been interested from the moment Isshin had called him, and had gotten more interested when he’d gotten a scan on Akemi, and realized that she was _captain level at fourteen._ Not to mention that she had enough control of her power that she wasn’t throwing it around like Ichigo.

Now though… he’d failed the Korusaki’s, and Yuzu was dead, Karin was emotionally broken. Karin mentioned something interesting though, she’d said the girl had “stopped the clock” in her… broken state. He’d watched the girl tence at that, but she didn’t move. Even confirming she had time manipulation when he asked. _Confirmed she had time travel when Karin wished she could._

After feeling his brain shutdown and reset, he knew this was his chance, he could not fuck this up. This was a way to fix his negligence. After most of the explanation, he watched the girl. She was obviously nervous, and possibly paranoid. To the point he was surprised she didn’t try to run. Unless… “I apologize for bothering you Akemi, but I will admit, you seem plainly uncomfortable right now. Given what you just said, all of this is widely out of your comfort zone. So why are you still here, and not trying to leave?”

He could feel Ichigo glare, Akemi just seemed to get more exhausted. “... I… not only could I use the help… But I am unsure if I could afford to do things the way I have been any longer. Not to mention…” the girl glanced at Orihime at that.

It was obvious she was referring to being able to restore grief seeds, but he got the feeling that she wasn’t telling them something. “What can you not afford to do anymore?” she actually began looking nervous at that.

Then she sighed, and responded. “Witches have a special, and strange, written language. Usually scattered throughout their labyrinth. It's also on the rings of magical girls, and occasionally appears in certain magic.” she raised her ring, showing off the odd symbols on its surface. “Normally, it's practically unreadable, or if it is readable, nobody has any significant basis to translate it. But I had few options, plenty of time, and the possibility of finding out some weakness of Walpurgisnacht to gain. So I tried, starting with my own ring, as I assumed it was my own name… I made basically no progress until, one day, I ‘woke up’, and could read it. It felt like staring at the sun, but I could read it.” … this was fascinating. So interesting he’d grabbed a notepad and started writing halfway through. A language she suddenly gained the ability to read… had she awakened some innate instinct? Tapped into her own witch to some degree? He was pretty confident they were similar to visored already… but then she continued. “One day… I was in a labyrinth, and took the time to read a word that was completely on its own. A name. The pain was far greater than normal, but I still tried to kill the witch. Although… The familiars were all frozen, watching me. The labyrinth was somehow immune to my stop at that point, and when I made it to the witch, it all disappeared. Afterwards, my soul gem was purified, I felt just a bit stronger, and I could hear _whispers_. I'm not sure how, But I _absorbed_ the witch.”

Urahara practically had to keep his jaw from hitting the floor, was she suggesting what he thought she was? “How many have you absorbed since?” he asked.

She visibly steeled herself. “I lost count. I needed the power, and I cannot bring grief seeds with me when I go back, so absorption was always a smarter idea in the long run. Even if it had consequences. It turns out most witches have their name somewhere in their labyrinth if you look hard enough. All of their voices can be… inconvenient at times though” 

… fuck, that was terrifying. She was practically a Menos Visored. Hell, if he carried that thought to its logical conclusion… Hollows were basically their own Zanpakuto… he was pretty sure witches had a similar nature to Hollows as well. So it was distinctly possible she could access the powers of the witches, that they were effectively all like Ichigo’s zanpakuto now, and contained within her.

“We’ll help” They had to, even if everything hadn’t gone to hell, they all needed an in with this girl _yesterday_. She could potentially be one of the most terrifying threats in Soul Society’s history if she broke. Not to mention that he was just utterly _fascinated_. Benihime didn’t even admonish him, he could feel her own burning curiosity at this unholy anomaly of a magical girl.

This was certainly going to be interesting at least. Although given the slight relief that had crossed her face when he’d agreed to help, he was pretty sure that things… wouldn’t necessarily be ok, but they’d work out.

So he got to work.


	28. Runes 4

As Homura walked to her first day of school, she braced herself for the inevitable consequence.

While in earlier timelines Mami didn't go out of her way to meet up with her, after she began absorbing witches… the girl had become more wary of her, her sheer power making her far more threatening than she used to be. Thankfully, Mami was relatively willing to accept that she had no hostile intentions as long as she hadn’t done anything to the Incubator yet, but still.

As she walked around, waiting for Madoka to walk by, she could feel Mami closing in. When both appeared at the same time, she knew things were going to get complicated, so she quickly asked Madoka where she should go.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t lucky enough for that to be the end of it. Mami said she could take her… at the same time as Madoka. Leaving them in a somewhat awkward situation, where the magical girls couldn't say anything really overt to each other while Madoka tried to start up conversations. Most fell a bit flat though, Mami being a good conversationalist, but directing most things to her to try to find out what kind of person she was.

By the time she was done, she was thoroughly tired of the girl's scrutiny. Especially since it was starting to agitate… or possibly excite the witches. It was hard to tell really. But the whispering was not appreciated. 

When Yoruichi showed up, she wasn’t really shocked, remembering the plan, she was shocked at how Mami was quickly taken with the disguised Shinigami cuddling against them.

She went home, slightly confused at how accepting Mami was of her now.


	29. Runes 5

Ichigo was worried about how his new sister was doing. She had to deal with, effectively, countless inner hollows. The only good news being that they, collectively, weren’t as violent as any of the visoreds. Including his own. Not even mentioning all the things she had been through other than that.

He wanted to help her, especially since she had helped Karin and Yuzu. But now he couldn’t do much, besides getting status updates from Urahara.

So when she came back, Ichigo made sure to try to help her relax somewhat. It was odd having the girl occasionally doing something relatively random, like eat cheese, or staying in a dark place for a bit. He didn’t judge her though, if he had to deal with a ton of slightly more crazy if less violent Shiro’s, he’d probably just be trying to keep them appeased to.

He’d protect her, or at least he’d try his best to, even in a situation where he couldn’t do much.


	30. Runes 6

Izabel made her art. She’d been doing that for a long time now, between the others and being stuck here.

It was odd, almost wrong, yet right. Like it was what she was supposed to do.

She had been the first, but now there were many. So very many.

Most didn’t get along, or just stuck to their own little corners or areas. Always being watched by the white haired one. The white haired one wasn't that powerful, but she was in charge. She had the same **authority** that the black haired girl did.

She even controlled _her_.

They all avoided the area where _she_ lay, in her limited form.

However, they couldn't interact with the world, could barely warp this one to their will with the white haired one around.

So she and many others asked the black haired girl to do things for them. The white haired one kept them from doing it constantly, but they did want to do something. 

Izabel knew some of them considered the black haired one their master, or their savior, or many other things.

She didn't care, she just wanted her to make some more art.


	31. Some Slight Insanity 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Homura make's a mistake.
> 
> and she finally CRACKS.

This timeline had already gone poorly, Madoka and Sayaka contracted before she had even met them. To make things worse, what few vague warnings she had given had only seemed to drastically alienate the group. She could feel every past failure haunting her as she tried to protect Madoka the best she could while she waited for her shield to recharge so she could keep this from happening again.

Hopefully next time would be the last time, ~~_next time next time next time nexttime always next time_~~ but she would have to be careful. Madoka didn’t deserve to feel pain because you decided not to protect her this timeline. ~~_still too weak, can’t protect her, failure failure fAILuRe_~~

She was searching for them, Mami’s usual schedule had her on a witch hunt today. Maybe they were already in a labyrinth? She felt like she was forgetting something though. This timeline had been incredibly stressful, so hopefully it wasn’t anything important. Some homework maybe? That was probably it. She hadn't really been bothering this timeline. She’d already learned countless timelines ago, and she would be erasing the grade they were worth soon.

Then she saw Mami and Madoka come out of a fading labyrinth alone as she jumped into the train station. Both were crying and didn’t notice her. _wait where was-_

Before she could react. Madoka’s soul gem was shattered.

_**Oh** _   
  
_That's what she’s forgotten_   
  


Mami finally noticed her and turned to do the same, but she had the stop up before she could.

…

She’d already failed

_there were two weeks before Walpurgisnacht and she couldn’t even keep a contracted Madoka alive to it_

_**She Did This** _

_**she managed to forget Sayaka would turn into a witch** _

_**WAS SHE REALLY SO FUCKING USED TO THIS- HAD IT BECOME SO FUCKING ROUTINE THAT SHE HAD FORGOTTEN?!** _

_**THIS WAS HER BIGGEST FUCKING FAILURE YET. ONE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED IF SHE HAD JUST FUCKING STOPPED TIME AND SHOT MAMI BEFORE SHE COULD KILL MADOKA!** _

She felt fury and grief fill her veins, fill her _soul gem_. She began pulling out pipe bombs and throwing them around Mami. When she was satisfied, she jumped on to a nearby building, dropped the stop, and detonated the bombs.

She watched vindictively as the proof of her failures exploded.

…

Wait

Had she forgotten to grab Madoka's body?

… She had.

Now her best friend couldn’t even have a burial.

~~_**HOW WORTHLESS DID SHE EVEN HAVE TO BE! WHAT KIND OF MONSTER WOULD DESTROY THEIR BEST FRIENDS BODY FOR NO FUCKING REASON, BECAUSE THEY COULDN’T THINK OF THE FUCKING CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS!** _ ~~

Homura vomited, and broke down crying in her grief, 

_**and her fury** _

\---

Homura woke up. That old nightmare ~~memory~~ again? Oh well!~ Nothing mattered anyways!~ Nothing except Madoka!~ 

Although she also needed to get some more grief seeds. She got kinda grumpy ~~less stable~~ when she was low on magic. So she made sure to always be near full!

Six grief seeds wasn’t nearly enough. She wished grief seeds stored in her shield stayed between timelines. But there was nothing she could do about that. So she would just have to keep tearing witches apart!

And so, Homura went about her day.


	32. Some Slight Insanity 2

Madoka really didn’t know what to think about Homura. Homura seemed relatively normal at school, very cheery and eccentric. ~~this felt wrong. Why did it feel wrong? What happened Homura.~~ One of the most popular girls in class. 

Yet, whenever she met her outside of school, whether it was to hang out, or because of magical things. Homura let herself become… darker. Especially when there was magical girl stuff happening. She joked about death, murder, organs, and whatever else she could think of. She seemed to teleport around. Somehow setting up pranks in less than a second. Although she seemed to prank Mami the most aggressively, she pranked all of them, seemingly randomly.

Sayaka said Homura might be insane, and honestly she might not be entirely wrong about that. Homura didn’t seem to see anything wrong with her jokes, and that one time they had actually seen her fight had been the Sweets Witch. All the others were defeated in a heartbeat. But the Sweets Witch… The Sweets Witch had been a hairsbreadth away from Mami, when suddenly Homura appeared, screaming die over and over. Tearing the witch apart with explosives.

Homura… also seemed to consider her, in a romantic sense. Well it wasn’t that hard to tell, considering half the time she called her Wife, and the other half she almost seemed to savor her name. ~~thinking about it made her cheeks _burn_~~

So as Homura entered Mami’s apartment, uninvited, without a key, again. While singing a song about various ways to kill a person. Madoka decided to try and keep her slightly more reasonable for once. When Homura sat down next to her she wasn’t surprised. So she put her hand on Homura’s head and prepared to ask her to stop singing.

So Madoka was a little surprised when Homura’s head dropped right into her lap. Mami and Sayaka both bolted upright, but then all three of you realized that she was already *asleep.* 

Sayaka wanted to wake her up and kick her off. While Mami actually asked her not to move as in this state she wouldn’t fill the house with pranks… again. But Madoka just looked down at the girl resting in her lap. “She seems so… peaceful while she’s sleeping.” ~~peaceful wasn’t quite the word you meant.~~ the other two agreed. Albeit Sayaka did so grudgingly.

Madoka really wished she knew how to help Homura with her problems. But all she could do was…

She started to stroke Homura's hair, and practically felt her relax from the affection. Madoka doubted she would find out why her ~~girlfriend, possibly stalker, acquaintance?~~ friend was like… this. Not today anyways. She was patient though.

She wanted to help Homura, and given how Homura was currently melting into her lap, Madoka thought Homura might want help to.


	33. Some Slight Insanity 3

Junko kept an eye on Madoka’s new friend. While she wanted to let Madoka have the room to make her own choices, this girl was… Well… to be fair to the girl. She didn’t _seem_ to be doing anything dangerous. But she seemed to invite herself to wherever she wanted to be. Not caring whether or not she was wanted, and while she seemed to tone it down around them, and especially around Tatsuya. Her sense of humor was… Dark was a severe understatement really. Not to mention that she called her daughter her wife. She couldn’t tell if she was serious, or if she even fully understood the implications. Honestly, she seemed insane. If not dangerously. 

Really, the main thing keeping her from saying anything was that Madoka seemed to want to help the girl. Junko was proud of her, even if she felt some professionals might be able to help more. 

Unfortunately Tomohisa had said the girl seemed spiritually aware, so even if she wanted to, depending on what the insanity was connected to she wouldn’t get the correct treatment. She sighed. At least they would be having all of Madoka’s friends over today, and likely for dinner. So hopefully Akemi would give some indication of whether she was dangerous to Madoka or not during it.

When they all arrived, she made sure to keep an eye on the girl. Making sure she wasn’t doing anything. Although she kept it subtle. If Akemi thought she was being actively watched she might not be as bold if she tried anything.

\---

Junko had watched the whole time. Which led her to the conclusion that Akemi didn’t seem very dangerous. Hell, she was so easily pacified that the only one who couldn’t seem to do so was Madoka’s other new friend Mami. Madoka only had to touch her in a vaguely affectionate way and she just shut down completely. No wonder Madoka hadn’t seemed particularly threatened. All she would have to do is lightly touch her and she would fall unconscious.

When Dinner started, she seemed almost overwhelmed by all the food, and when she finally ate a bite she started crying. Madoka put her hand on the girls shoulder “I… I’m sorry it's just… been a long time since I had a home cooked meal.” Junko felt her heart break a bit for the girl.

So of course it all fell apart. She couldn’t see it, but she felt the force of it. As Madoka seemingly activated her own power. Suddenly it was hard to think straight. There was so much _screaming_. Before she could drown in the projected pain and grief and rage. Homura knocked Madoka out with tears in her eyes.

\---

Tomohisa was looking into anything that might help Madoka control her power. As they weren’t sure how active her powers would be when she woke up. She had also talked to the rest of the girls, causing some important explanations for everyone. But that would come later. As she looked at the girl sitting down at the dining room chair. Still exactly where she had been when she had knocked Madoka in an attempt to keep her from hurting herself anymore with her powers. She almost seemed like a puppet with the strings cut. Even after she took a seat across the table, the only indication she had noticed was that her eyes seemed to follow her movements.

Before she could say anything, Akemi began talking “... You are here to tell me you don’t want me around your daughter. Aren’t you.” The tone was nothing like the tone she usually used, this one was lifeless, cold, and harsh. It wasn’t particularly accusatory just… tired. An accepted statement of fact. What little she saw in the girls eyes seemed just the tiniest bit more… coherent, then she was earlier.

She breathed in and out. “No.” she replied.

That actually seemed to shock the girl, causing her to bring her head up a little and her eyes to widen. Then she seemed to be wrestling with herself to remain emotionless as she continued. ”Why not? If it wasn’t for me Madoka wouldn’t be in such pain. She wouldn’t be unconscious. And while some people seem to think I don’t understand that I say or do insane things, I know for a fact I’m insane. I’ve been insane for quite a while now. Hell, depending on your definition of insanity I’ve been insane for a very long time. Even if I didn’t act like this then.” she repeatedly clenched and unclenched her fists throughout.

“... tell me your story.”   


She seemed shocked again. “... what…?”

“As I said, tell me your story. Tell me how you ended up this way.” The whole wish thing sounded like it could go wrong in so many ways. What were the chances that it didn’t screw her over.

“... You wouldn’t believe me… nobody ever believes me…” Tears formed in her eyes at that.

“Well then, give me a chance. Even if I don’t believe you, venting about your problems will help you.” If it was anything near as bad as Junko thought it was, then she had a feeling she was in for quite a story.

After a minute, Akemi-no, Homura shakily nodded. Then told her story.

Junko was wrong. 

It was so much worse than she ever could have imagined.

When Homura finished, crying from the recalled memories, she walked over, sat down, and pulled her onto her lap. She comforted the poor girl until she finally fell asleep.

Junko kept the rage that had been born within throughout the story slowly simmering in the background. This girl deserves someone to be angry on her behalf for the injustices she had seen. So she would be that person.


	34. Some Slight Insanity 4

It took them a bit. Tomohisa had managed to get info on someone in Karakura who could help. That left Mami to _wait_ as her worldview slowly shattered.

Kyubey had lied. Madoka’s father could see. So could others. Madoka had powers, even without a contract.

Then those powers had backfired when they tried to link to Homura.

She still remembered the pain, loneliness, sadness, and slight _madness_ that had radiated from them.

She wondered what did that to Homura. The prankster who she… tolerated? Partially because Homura wouldn’t let herself be stopped, and partially because… she had saved her life. She had tried to warn her, and when she ignored the warning, Homura still saved her life, just before her head would have been bitten off.

She didn’t know how to feel about Homura. The insane magical girl who had saved her, who called Madoka “wife”, who pranked everyone, whos emotions were actual torture to feel, and who had apparently managed to get Junko to hold her after telling her story.

She wondered what the story was…

Everything was still a mess right now, Junko still held the sleeping Homura, Tomohisa held the unconscious Madoka, and Tatsuya had chosen her lap. Not that she minded.

She hoped things would get better soon though.

She hoped she would get some more answers.

She hoped she would be able to help the girl who saved her life.

\---

Sayaka knew something was wrong with Homura. She had known the whole time. But now she knew approximately how messed up she was.

All she could remember was the sheer pain of it, and Homura knocking out her best friend so that she would stop hurting herself and everyone else. 

She had seen the tears in Homura’s eyes.

Her feelings about Homura had been simple beforehand, back when she was a weird transfer student. The annoyance and rage just got clearer and clearer. Then Homura saved Mami’s life. She hadn’t known what to think about that. Especially as Homura seemed to get… less threatening when Madoka figured out it was possible, was _easy_ even, to knock Homura out with physical affection.

When she had absentmindedly been given a remote looking thing and Homura told her it was for, “If I ever go too far.” she had been shocked. She had checked with Madoka, and found out she had one too. They didn’t know what they did though.

She almost hoped she would never find out.

Thankfully that was about when they got to the odd shop, and she got a reprieve from her thoughts. Seeing Homura being carried around was at least entertaining.

The conversations got complicated after that, but after being told generally what was happening, The weird looking guy called Urahara called some more people to talk to. While he got something for Madoka.

As Homura woke up, and Madoka was woken up, Sayaka wondered what could possibly happen next.

\---

Madoka watched Homura.

She now knew a fragment of what was going on in her friends head.

All she wanted to do was hug her until it was better. Even if it wasn’t much better. Anything to lessen that burden, just a bit. 

But if she hugged her, Homura would just fall asleep, and they needed her awake right now.

The following conversations explained many things for both sides. Although… she hadn’t been expecting shinigami to be real. Even Homura seemed surprised. 

Then, they asked what Homura’s powers were.

She caught Homura looking at her mom, who nodded.

“Time manipulation.”

Madoka blinked. Wait-

When they asked how that happened, the same glance. Then Homura told them her story, her normal energy subdued.

In the end, Madoka cried.

Madoka cried for her friend, _her best friend_ , who had been driven to insanity trying to save her and her friends, over and over and _over._ Who had watched all her friends die.

She did hug her then, but it wasn’t quite enough to put Homura to sleep, possibly because she was on edge from her emotions.

Everyone in the room seemed horrified and sad. Although Urahara also seemed interested. She glared at him, which made him back off a bit.

Then Sayaka asked a question.

“What do these do?” while holding one of the weird remotes Homura had given them.

Homura responded, a minute later. “It's to detonate the bomb attached to my wrist in case I ever lose myself more.”

Madoka looked at the small, inconspicuous bracelet on Homura’s wrist.

She wanted to puke.


	35. Some Slight Insanity 5

Urahara watched the girls. Notably Homura Akemi, the insane time traveler with… a surprisingly analytical mind. At least when she cared to be analytical evidently, from the impressions she gave off, she didn’t seem to have much of a filter left. She hadn’t said what had finally driven her over the brink of madness. Whether it was one event, or a slow decay.

She was _very_ interesting though. To make things better, while she seemed actually insane, he knew a lot about insanity from his own research, and his time as the warden of the nest of maggots, so he was able to get a relatively good read on her. 

All signs pointed to her being dangerous, but more in a retaliatory way. He didn’t think she would go around killing people willy nilly or for minor infractions. She might prank them, but… she seemed relatively harmless, even if he could almost visibly watch the girls in her head turning while she watched them.

When she dropped the bomb, _Benihime gave him the mental equivalent of a slap_ , that was her bracelet, his opinion solidified. She had countermeasures in place for if she shattered further.

_ how interesting. _

She was a schemer, one who had plans for if she broke. One completely focused on keeping her friends alive.

So all he had to do was help with that, and she would work with him. He would get a free reset button for dealing with the new threat that they had brought his attention to.

Although it's probably a good thing he didn’t say any of that out loud, given how most of the children looked horrified and the parents were arguing with her to take it off. With little success. He couldn’t even blame her, it was likely a security blanket of sorts. A source of comfort that she wouldn’t hurt her friends if she snapped again.

Hmm, it would take some tests but… “I should be able to make a non lethal substitute so that you can still be taken down easily if you snap further, but you won’t die if you do it.” 

Homura looked ready to continue arguing. “Please.” with that one word from Madoka, she seemed to deflate a bit. She kept complaining, but it rang… not false, but more like she had accepted it, even if she hated it and would let everyone know.

Well, guess it's time to start testing.

\---

It had been a couple hours as Urahara attempted to repurpose some of his older projects, leaving Madoka to try and convince Homura to take it off. But she couldn’t even make Homura fall asleep today, she was far to on guard. She did try her hardest to calm her down, but with little success. Homura was… honestly, basically throwing a hissy fit. She wasn’t happy about the b- _bomb_ attached to her wrist being taken off.

So when Urahara finally came back with what looked like a choker and some remotes she was happy, if only for the fact that Homura wouldn’t wear a bomb any longer.

When a weird purple haired lady took off the bracelet so that Homura wouldn’t try and argue about it, well, Madoka was happy no one else tried at least considering Homura attempted to bite her. The only reason she failed was because the lady was fast.

Now Homura really was throwing a hissy fit. Freaking out and obviously attempting to do something. Madoka panicked. She grabbed the collar from Urahara’s hand, and shoved it on Homura. Which caused her to freeze for a minute as she inspected the new addition. Then, after a minute of touching it with her fingers, she began throwing another hissy fit.

… this was gonna be a long day…


	36. Some Slight Insanity 6

Homura hated no longer having it. The wrist bomb had been a way to keep herself from hurting her friends. Something she had made herself. Something she knew would work. She couldn’t hurt her friends, her mind was stormy sometimes. Sometimes it became a firestorm, sometimes it just poured and poured _and poured_. She did her best to keep her mind focused. _But it was so hard some days_. She had to make sure she wouldn’t hurt Madoka.

The wrist bomb had been a guarantee. The collar Pink-Wife had put on her… she had no guarantees. Not yet anyways. She asked for remotes to store and share with others, and after a minute they were given to her. Pink-Wife looked at her worryingly, but she ignored it. Even if she wasn’t worthy of it Pink-Wife was her friend. So she needed to be safe. “Here, take these please.” She quickly handed remotes to Purple-mom, Pink-Wife, and Blue-Wife. Purple-mom took it without reacting, but Blue-Wife and Pink-Wife tried to turn them down. She would’ve begged if she had to, but Purple-mom said to take them, if only for her. She appreciated it, even if she was worried more for her friends then herself.

She then put all but one in her shield. Several people seemed to notice that, but she had something she needed to do.

She needed to be sure. She couldn’t hurt her friends!

She used it, and was quickly bound with magical restraints. They were so tight she could barely move. Everyone around her was panicking, but she ignored it. She tried her best to break out. Using every trick she’d learned to try to break out of them. s ~~he ignored the part of her that panicked from being so thoroughly bound.~~ even using magic. But nothing worked. Then someone disabled them.

“Why?! Why did you do that?!” Pink-Wife was worried, she didn’t fully understand why. She wasn’t worth that.

“Because I had to be sure I couldn’t hurt you Pink-Wife!” she said with a smile on her face. the way Pink-Wife’s face only got more worried when she said that only made the storm within her head more nebulous. But she ignored it. She wasn’t worthy of Pink-Wife.

But if Pink-Wife was going to care for her anyways… then she would make sure she was safe from everyone and everything, including herself.


	37. Some Slight Insanity 7

Sayaka wished she'd been wrong.

God she wished she’d been wrong.

Now she knew how messed up Homura was. 

And what had driven her to it.

Mami was getting support from… others. Sayaka couldn’t quite bring herself to pay much attention to her surroundings right now. Especially after she’d realized she had been given a detonator. * _A detonator she had considered using_. Not entirely seriously. Homura had always been pushing boundaries. But by the time she had it, she mostly… not trusted Homura. But she had been giving her the benefit of the doubt. Still, she’d considered it. Once or twice. 

She’d also been the trigger for at least one break. Not directly. But if it hadn’t been for her Homura wouldn’t have broken the first time. She had caused Mami to break because she wouldn’t listen, and that had been what first caused her to change severely. But from what Homura had implied… that hadn’t been the last time she had to. She’d still been sane then.

… what were the chances that it wasn't also her fault…? At least a bit? But Homura had been… evasive about what exactly drove her over. More evasive than she had been about killing Madoka. ~~she tried not to think about what would’ve been necessary to finally do it. To finally break Homura.~~

She was a terrible friend… 

It took her awhile to feel better. By that time she was already back in her own bed. About to sleep.

… She wanted to help Homura. She wanted to be her friend. She wanted to make Homura _happy_. ~~she’d caused this anyways~~

She had to think of ways to do so though, and honestly, it was kind of hard to think of ways to do so. Homura just seemed… affectionate, and while she was willing to be affectionate back… that didn’t feel like enough. 

… What about a nickname? Something more than “transfer student”... That could work. She tried to think of names, but could only think of one.

Hopefully she would think of another when she got back to school.

…

She didn’t.

… _she just called Homura “Stranger Danger” to her face._

… and Homura liked it?

Huh.

Right. Kinda insane.

\---

Homura loved the new nickname Blue-Wife gave her! The old one had been boring and stupid. ~~it hadn’t been a friendly one, in so many timelines.~~ This new one was so much better!

Hmm… if she was a stranger… then she should be the best one!

It took some preparation, but she was ready.

She walked over to her friends, and pulled out some candy. “As the best stranger, I have to make sure to be doing it correctly!” when her friends laughed at her joke, she felt her smile grow. But she wasn't done yet.

When school was out, she quickly stopped time after getting out of their sight and switched to another outfit. Then walked back to them. Blue-Wife choked outright. Pink-Wife laughed so hard she almost went on the ground. Gold-Wife(?) seemed to be trying to hold in her laughter, but she was succumbing to giggles, and Greenie had tears in her eyes from how hard she laughed. 

Wow, wearing a trenchcoat and a whole bunch of other “stranger” clothes was a great idea!

She couldn’t wait to see how they would react to the unmarked white van she put near the school's entrance!


	38. Some Minor Insanity 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In another universe, something stops her sanity from shattering.
> 
> This had its own cost though

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> takes most of the "dream sequence" segment of the first Some Slight Insanity chapter into account, so if for some reason you haven't read that yet, do so.

Homulilly watched as her wielder started slipping into insanity. After all of this, her wielder was finally _breaking_.

She thought she would have more time. Homura had handled everything so far without breaking. All the trauma. All the antagonism. Every time her friends forgot her. She had handled it.

But she had finally shattered. 

Homulilly cringed, she couldn’t let this happen. Her wielder didn’t deserve that, not after all the suffering she had already gone through. 

So Homulilly braced herself, there was only one thing she could do. She didn’t have enough of a connection, or the right powers to help another way. Not in any safe capacity.

She felt for Homura’s emotions, her fragmenting mind. She *pulled*, and started taking her suffering- _s_ _he was immediately driven to her knees. **fuck.**_ She could feel her mind fraying already, breaking under the strain. But she kept going. It was her duty to help her wielder. But she couldn’t manage to protect her before. She would have been more likely to ruin things if she had tried to interact sooner. But she had been too passive. An observer. While she wasn’t exactly the same as her wielder. They did share most traits. If someone were to see them together they would probably call them twins. One of the traits they shared, was their _determination_.

Even as she felt her mind erode. Even as she felt her sanity slip. Even as she felt like just _screaming_ , and not stopping until she fell unconscious. She _focused_. She didn’t stop. She wouldn’t stop. She couldn’t stop.

_**She would keep going, even if it drove her completely insane.** _

... 

It would stop… right?

It had to stop eventually…

She wasn’t sure how long she could take Homura being in such a state.

She could feel the despair building up within her as she took it on.

_God she wanted to vomit_

She couldn’t feel her arms anymore.

Or her legs.

Nothing but a faint sense of pain, and the burning emotions that consumed her mind as fuel.

Then it finally began to cut out.

Homura returned to normal.

And Homulilly fell into a deep slumber, her task complete.


	39. Some Minor Insanity 2

Homura wasn’t proud of that timeline, she’d practically drowned herself in despair and had viciously torn apart every witch she could in an attempt to survive and wreak vengeance against the world that had taken Madoka so many times. ~~she thanked everything that she had retained just enough of her sanity to keep herself from turning her hate on others.~~ She was honestly a little shocked she came out of it sane. 

But halfway through the next timeline… she heard a voice. A voice that suggested pranks, and joked about murder.

… maybe she had been too quick on the whole assumption about getting out of it with her sanity intact.

When it came right down to it though… the voice never did anything hostile. Even when she suggested questionable acts, or said insane things, she never tried to fight against her. She was bothersome at times. But at the same time, she didn’t bother her when she was busy trying to fight or tried to protect Madoka. 

She ended up assuming that the voice couldn’t do anything.

Then one day she was knocked unconscious by a witches attack _sloppy, she can’t make mistakes like this, mistakes get her friends killed,_ But when she woke up, she found herself in her bed. She tried asking the voice, and she told her that she had taken control to keep her from dying.

Homura… didn’t know what to do about this. She asked whether the voice could always take control. Her own hand suddenly flipping off herself was.. An informative response.

It took her a long time to get used to the arrangement. Especially since the voice got a bit more active after that. Sometimes moving her arm to do something before she can process, sometimes reacting to something she wasn’t paying attention to, and sometimes she took over when she went to sleep. 

Homura… was conflicted about it. On the one hand, the reality of something being able to take control was terrifying. On the other… even when her body was taken over at night, the worst the voice did was prank Mami pretty hard. Not even mentioning that she usually gathered grief seeds and munitions when she was in charge without her. And that having someone help her in combat, even if it was only small stuff, was… nice. Especially since the voice remembered always

She slowly learned to trust the voice, bit by bit. Until eventually she realized, she had never asked the voice for its name. Although granted, it probably wasn’t a great idea to give a voice a name, but if the voice had already chosen a name it was probably too late. Although if she just told her to call her Homura or Akemi… that would work. 

So she asked.

“... I… I have been waiting for this day for a long time Homura.” The voice said, a bit more… calmly then usual.   
  
“My name is Homulilly, and I will help protect you and your friends forever! Even if I have to learn to tear through all that stands before us to do so!”

That was the day Homura gained her first true and trusted ally. One who would always help her.

Although it was a bit of a shock when she transformed later, and found her shield’s designs were a bit more compact, and that on the underside there was one part that could be removed.

As she pulled the magical dagger out of her shield, she questioned what exactly she had actually done.


	40. Some Minor Insanity 3

The dagger wasn’t the most effective for most things, it wasn’t a particularly powerful weapon. She couldn’t even really mass create it like most magi due to its nature. Granted, it carved through familiars and didn’t really use magic. So it was good for saving ammunition at least. Possibly for fighting other magical girls if they get too close… But she didn’t have much use for it yet.

\---

Then came the day they failed early again, Homura let them die early again. This time it was to Sayaka’s witch and Kyoko’s self destruction… There were still ten days left before Walpurgisnacht. ~~_S_ _he couldn’t do this again, not again please._~~ She felt her body move on its own and realized Homulilly had taken control and she was about to grab it back when- “stop. Rest now… I will handle it for now.”

Homura thought about arguing… but… rest sounded good right about now.

So she fell back into her mind, and slept.

\---

Homulilly quickly jumped on the nearest train in time stop, secured herself, then dropped it. now that her wielder was out of commission… well. She needed out. Both of them needed out! This place… hurt to look at. She couldn’t stay here after that happened again.

_ Not again not again not againnotagainnotaGAIN _

She wondered what her wielder would think when she found out her weapon was Homulilly?

How would she react to finding out she had always had her by her side… even if they could never talk before. 

… this was depressing. Maybe the murder song would cheer her up? Ya the murder song totally would.

So she quietly sung the murder song to herself, while she watched the stars fly by… occasionally she switched to a different song. Doing one thing for too long got real boring.

Then she noticed a stop went on longer than normal, and that Homura’s soul gem was glowing. She jumped off the train quickly, and went on the _hunt._

Unfortunately, by the time she got there, two other magical girls were already finishing up the fight. So she calmed down and poked her wielder, she really wasn’t made for social… anything really. So she would leave it to Homura. 

As Homura woke up, Homulilly told her about what had happened, and the current situation. As she watched the situation, she tried to be a comforting presence, she knew her words… weren’t exactly ideal for comforting. So she tried to stay silent as she watched Homura talk. Then Homura started crying again. Homulilly didn’t know how to help anymore. She wanted Homura to be alright though! How could she-

Then the other two magical girls hugged Homura, and comforted her. Homulilly didn’t know who they were yet. But she would try her damndest to protect them. Anyone who would help Homura was someone worth protecting. 

So she sat and watched, as Homura slowly gained new allies. New friends.

… Maybe this timeline wasn’t such a failure after all!

Maybe next time they could grab their new friends and-

Then Yuzu almost died. 

It had been close, but she had managed to activate the time stop just in time.

She really had to be more careful, Homura hadn’t used it fast enough. Then… didn’t the girls say that Homura’s weapon was an imperfect replica of a shinigami’s. 

A society of people who likely had experience with spirits like her.

She thought about all their failures so far.

They needed more power.

More allies.

More everything.

If Homura didn’t tell them anything… then she would.

They needed the help.

And oh what fun help it would be!


	41. Some Minor Insanity 4

That was far too close. If Homulilly hadn’t used her shields power… well, one of the spikes had been half an inch from yuzu’s soul gem when she stopped time. She knew for a fact she’d been too late on the reaction, if Homulilly hadn’t done it, Yuzu would be dead right now.

She’d had to reveal her ability to them to get them out of the way, and by that point she wasn’t feeling particularly merciful.

When the labyrinth dropped, Yuzu and Karin seemed shocked. Before she could say anything, Homulilly said something. “We need more allies, let's go talk to the candy man!”

Homura immediately squashed the idea, it was too much of a risk. Apparently, Homulilly sensed what she was going to say before she could. At least that's what Homura assumed, since Homulilly took full control. She tried to fight back, but she really didn’t have much practice fighting this. While Homulilly pretty much always had to take control, even if she mostly did it in non-hostile ways.

“Are you okay Homura?” Yuzu asked, a worried look on her face. Maybe fighting for control had had a more visible effect then she thought it would.

Before she could react, Homulilly spoke. “Homura is fine! But I’m taking over now because she is a secrety secret lover, and she needs to talk to people! So since she won’t I’m going to be in charge!” Karin and Yuzu both seemed shocked and cautious, but not necessarily hostile. Right, their brother had something similar going on didn’t he.

Homulilly apparently had decided to go at a breakneck pace, possibly so that if she attempted to fight for control back they would faceplant, the crafty shit.

It didn’t take very long to get there at the speed they were moving, so when they got there Homura immediately started fighting for control again.

But when they moved inside with their magical girl transformations still active, she knew it was too late.

Especially since everyone was staring at her. While she could feel herself being put on guard by it, Homulilly seemed to love it. Throwing out a big smile.

The questioning session started with an odd one though. “Why are your eyes black?” Urahara asked.

Homulilly stood still for a moment, before pulling a mirror out of her shield and looking at it. Their eyes were in fact black right then, albeit with purple irises that almost seemed to glow. “Huh, well I would guess it's because I’m currently in charge and not Homura!”

As the scientist grew visibly more interested, and the questions about what was going on were answered, Homura regretted most of her life decisions.

Although… The resulting conversation did also have Urahara theorize that Homulilly was her Zanpakuto spirit/ Inner-witch/hollow. So that's something at least.

She didn’t appreciate Homulilly telling them about her time magic though.


	42. Some Minor Insanity 5

She’d actually managed to get their help, in both timelines. Things were kind of a mess at first. But when she actually befriended Madoka and Sayaka. Managed to convince them not to contract. 

Well… things were going amazing really.

So when Soju attacked, stole Mami’s soul gem, Almost got Madoka killed, and turned Sayaka into some kind of pseudo witch… Homura was furious, but she couldn’t stay conscious through her many injuries, even if she could feel Homulilly in the back of her head radiating sheer _antipathy_. She just couldn’t stay awake when the fight was over.

\---

Homulilly was _pissed_. Her sheer wrath providing its own form of cold burning clarity. As soon as she felt their body was healed enough that she could safely use it, she took control. 

As she walked into the room where Madoka and Sayaka were eating, she was already muttering about what she would do to the bitch. Causing them to look over and look shocked. She didn’t care, she needed to take out her _**Hatred**_ on something. Thankfully Urahara placed a plate in front of her as she sat down, and she began eating, imagining that instead of breakfast, she was biting through Soju, tearing her apart.

Madoka and Sayaka looked a little scared. Not that that stopped Madoka. “A-are you alright Homura?” she asked, voice concerned.

She stopped chewing for a moment. “I’ll be fine once that **_Bitch_** is torn to shreds over my blade and her soul gem is in pieces.” She said, with a dark look in her eyes. Well besides the normal one from when she was in control. “But, I’m not Homura. Im Homulilly. Homura will probably be up in a bit.”

The girls seemed confused as she continued chewing through her food. Until Homura started waking up, and slowly took back control. She looked a bit confused for a second, but more due to location then anything else. She’d already woken up halfway through doing things on occasion now. So that part wasn’t that shocking. As Homulilly stewed in the back, she sent Homura a mental message, “Next time we see the bitch, I’m going to help you tear her apart.”

Homura seemed to send the mental equivalent of mild annoyance, but she seemed more focused on her own grudge against the girl while telling their friends what just happened.

Good enough.


	43. Some Minor Insanity 6

Toshiro followed Homura as they ran to help Momoe in time stop. The indications of the girls' attacks left around the labyrinth as they headed in. Then suddenly, Homura narrowed her eyes as they got closer. He raised an eyebrow, especially when he felt the rise of hollow like reiatsu that reminded him of the visoreds or Ichigo, her eyes turning black.

“Is something up?”   
  
“Homulilly thinks she can feel Soju, so prepare.” He nodded, preparing himself. Depending on how things went… He might need to get Nagisa out of there. Inner hollows weren’t exactly friendly, and inner witches didn’t seem much better. He didn’t like the odds of Homulilly taking some degree of control, which would likely make Homura a lot more brutal.

It would be for the best if Nagisa didn’t see that.

By the time they did meet Nagisa, he could practically feel the girl on edge. Even though they quickly shredded the familiars, Homura completely stopped time, freezing Soju in the middle of the leap. He saw a smile dominate the girl's face, iris’s wide in the way he knew from people like Kenpachi.

“Take her away Toshiro. Homura, why don’t you rest for now.” He glared at the girl, but he grabbed Nagisa and her father in timestop and took them to a different room. Hearing the repeated sounds of gunfire from behind him. For a moment he wondered whether he should have said something about keeping Mami’s soul gem intact, but he was a bit too far along to go back now. As soon as he got far enough out of sight range though…

“Stay here Nagisa, it… won’t be pretty in there.”

He quickly headed back, and winced when he saw how Soju’s head had practically been liquidated by shotgun fire, and any bare bit of limb blasted off. The girl had practically had both her feet blown to bits, and both hand’s blown off.

Fuck, no wonder Homulilly had told Homura to rest. She was making _sure_ the girl wouldn’t be able to heal the damage. Even though she’d long since put a bullet through the girls soul gem.

Which was when he noticed the ring on one of the blasted off hands. One which wasn’t Mami.

… Homura hadn’t said it wasn’t possible for two magical girls to share a body. Hell, she hadn’t even said if it was impossible for a magical girl to share a body with a non-magical girl. Which would certainly explain the oddity’s brought up.

He grabbed it, wincing as the hand was nearly ripped away from the ring due to momentum. After getting rid of it, he handed it to Homulilly, he looked at him oddly, but put it in her shield.

After a moment, she also finally cut out the time stop, causing the remains of the girl's body to go boneless and the transformation disappeared as she started patting it down. He winced, but began searching it as well. The both of them finding a massive amount of soul gems and some more of the odd fake grief seeds.

Yeah, it's a good thing they grabbed the other one.

They needed somebody to interrogate.


	44. Rewound 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Homura goes too far in the past.
> 
> Before Madoka was even born.

Junko had never been quite sure what to make of the other girl.

Homura had transferred in when she was fourteen, and had been kinda odd. Always acting and seeming like some sort of unobtainable standard of perfection. She’d kinda hated it at first, even tried to insult the girl a bit, but Homura just looked at her with an expression she couldn’t decipher, and then left. It’d been strange, but she shrugged it off.

At least she had been, until she realized Homura was one of the few people in her class who never said a word about her, negative or positive. It was… odd. The person with the most reason to judge her out of the whole class just seemed… odd.

For a moment, she thought about whether her parents would like it if she befriended the girl, then was annoyed by the thought of throwing away a chance to make a friend just because her parents might approve. Hell, she’d make the girl a delinquent too just to spite them!

Her normal friends didn’t really question why she sat down at the table was sitting at, getting there before anyone else. They knew she’d do whatever she felt like at this point, so it was better to just let it happen. Homura raised an eyebrow, but after they began eating she just seemed to roll with it, not saying a word even as they began talking.

they ended up slipping into an odd friendship(?) after that. They hung around Homura, and occasionally dragged her somewhere. Which the girl was strangely polite about, only bothering to say when she needed to leave. No matter where they went, or what they did, even if she didn’t join in a lot of the time. The girl had dragged her home more than once. They even got intercepted by some gang members she'd pissed off once with Homura around, and watched her methodically take them down with ease!

It was… kinda nice. The girl never questioned why, or judged her, even when she did stupid shit, or heard her parents chew her out for whatever she’d done then.

Then about a year or two later, her parents said she would never amount to anything.

She hated it, immediately rebelling against that and throwing herself into schoolwork. She found it immensely hard to catch up after how much she avoided schoolwork and how many classes she missed though.

So she sucked up her pride, and asked for Homura’s help.

Thankfully, the girl didn’t say a word about the sudden change, just pulling out notes to help. Even though they’d gone to high school they’d still been an odd pair of kinda friends up to now.

It was hard as hell of course, Homura was practically a drill instructor, and she had a lot to learn. But she persevered out of sheer fucking _spite_. She turned her grades around, and shot up to one of the best in class.

Which was, of course, when she looked at Homura and realized something… a warmth in her chest when she looked into the girl's amethyst-like eyes. She wasn't sure when exactly she'd started to fall for this girl, ~~who was she kidding, the single-handed smackdown had been the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen,~~ but she did know one thing.

_She regretted every single life choice she’d ever made that led to this outcome._

Even if the girl acted odd, or occasionally went off to seemingly go do nothing or whatever, one thing had stood out. Even though she was beautiful, and really smart. 

She was as oblivious as a fucking brick.

In fact, she was pretty sure Homura hadn’t actually understood or cared about half of the love letters or confessions. Half the remaining love letters had been assumed to have been mistakes, and those who sent them too embarrassed to do it again. The remaining attempts didn’t make it past her ironically enough. She had realized early that Homura didn’t have the greatest understanding of other people, even if at times it could be razor sharp. So she had been careful to keep assholes away from Homura. Especially since the girl just didn’t seem interested in anyone.

She’d once watched some poor bastard try to ask her on a lunch date, and not only did any romantic indications just seem to go in one ear and out the other, but the guy had practically been brutally denied because Homura had seen him bullying other students and had verbally eviscerated him in her normal cold voice. It had been awe inspiring, and had taught her one thing.

She had no idea how to approach Homura about this, and even if she did. She didn’t want to accidentally ruin whatever delicate balance she’d managed to achieve. She’d noticed how Homura didn’t really make freinds of her own, often just sharing hers, or having cordial chats with random people impressed by her.

So she set the feelings to the side, focusing on living her life with Homura as her best friend. Even when she went to college the girl shared a dorm with her!

Then she had an interview, and Homura was dragged along because otherwise she’d probably stay indoors all day! The girl would be fine with hanging around for a bit.

Then there was a fucking crash down the line!

She had absolutely no idea what to do when suddenly their plans to get there were completely wrecked as their train was forced to stop really early, and also ruined any plans to get back anytime soon. Before she could even say anything, Homura got that weird look in her eyes she sometimes did before- “I need to go.” that. She was never sure why Homura just left at seemingly random times, but prying seemed like a bad idea. The girl would tell her eventually...

Probably.

Even if she didn't, Homura wasn't obligated to tell Junko anything. Even if she’d like her too. She knew she hated her own parents telling her to do anything.

As she walked to a bar, hoping to make this day not a complete wash in some way, she ended up turning a corner to some guy. Who quickly seems to notice her and do hir level best to look like he’d been doing something. She didn’t really care, but he did apologize for taking up the sidewalk.

Then she realized he was fucking adorkable as the conversation continued, especailly when he asked her to coffee. For a moment her mind flashed to Homura, but she immediately shrugged that away and agreed to the invitation. The conversation slowly became less awkward, at least for a bit. It became a bit more awkward when Homura texted her for directions to the shop, but it quickly evaporated again as they continued talking.

Then Homura stepped in, and things got weird as Tomohisa’s eyes got wide.

“You can see spirits too?” he said out loud. Homura just seemed to stare at him, then an empty space near them.

She both could take a guess from what was going on given that sentence, and definitely wanted confirmation. Especially since it seemed both had forgotten her. So she, rather loudly, said. "So are either of you two going to explain what you just said?" He seemed to have no idea what to say, while Homura just sat down and said nothing, leaving him to fumble until he ended up giving an explanation.

… Huh.

Tomohisa and Homura could see spirits. “Cool.” she practically felt them both jump a bit, but she ignored it as she thought about how Homura would disappear occasionally. She guessed she knew why now at least.

Then the conversation continued, all of them bringing things up and talking occasionally. It was odd, but nice.

Although she was pretty sure the poor guy blushed a little whenever he looked directly at either of them. Which was so hilarious that she knew one thing for sure, as soon as she got his number she would rib him a bit. Then warn him that Homura wasn’t exactly known to be receptive to romantic advances.

But at the same time… with him acting as cover… 

She grinned, this was a good day.


	45. Rewound 2

Tomohisa wasn’t entirely sure how any of this had happened.

When Junko had run into him, he’d had to awkwardly pretend nothing was happening as the ghost continued bothering him. Thankfully, the ghost had been willing to wait a bit as they got coffee, but it was kinda awkward. Especially when he found she had a friend who had also been on the train who would be coming to join them. But other than that it was surprisingly easy to talk to her.

Then Homura stepped into the café, and looked directly at the spirit, causing him to blurt out the obvious fact that she could see spirits. Forgetting for a moment that Junko was right there. She hadn’t allowed that to slide, while Homura left it all to him to explain. Staying completely quiet until he explained. 

Then Junko said it was cool.

She didn’t think he was crazy or something, she just thought it was cool.

What???

The conversation became really nice after that, both of the… admittedly attractive women discussing and throwing things out, even if Homura was the more quiet of the two. When they left, He ended up feeling disappointed that they couldn’t stay longer. Even if he got their numbers.

… Then Junko started ribbing him a bit about the obvious attraction to both of them through text, it was embarrassing, but he got the feeling that she didn’t actually mean anything by it. Especially since she seemed to be flirting a bit at the same time. It was odd, but he went with it, even the weird proposal.

It had taken a few moments, but he had agreed to it after thinking about it a bit.

Although thinking implied more conscious thought.

After that though, they started dating. It was nice. They had conversations, went to dinner, and various other things. Homura never quite seemed to figure out they were inviting her on dates. At least as an equal participant. But she always came with.

This situation was somehow weirder than being able to talk to ghosts. No wonder Junko just thought it was cool.


	46. Rewound 3

Homura wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but she was in the past. Far in the past. Before her own _birth_.

She had to immediately set out to do… several things really. She had to get legal documentation even though she legally didn't exist, get money, get a house, reaffirm her arsenal, and get herself lined up for a school, all while hunting witches.

She almost wondered why she was putting in this much effort, and not just hiding out for years until she had to protect Madoka. But at the same time, she still wanted to become someone Madoka would think was cool. It had been important to her.

So she went to school, and almost had a heart attack when she heard the name Junko Kaname. She had noticed the purple haired girl, but had just assumed she was a different girl. But all the rumors and whatnot currently seemed to be about the girl. How she’d become a delinquent or something.

Homura had no idea what to think about it, but she kept an eye on the girl, and ignored the occasional needling from her. Until the day Junko had forcefully sat herself down at her table and stayed there.

It was odd having the girl dragging her around, but it was… nice. In an odd way. Even if she had to occasionally deal with the consequences of whatever dumb thing the girl did. Not that she really judged the girl for it. She’d heard some of the stuff going on with the girl's parents. Often having to bring the girl back from something stupid herself meant she got a front row seat. To the point that she occasionally just had the Junko stay with her if she’d gotten hurt or drunk. Often sending messages of where she was staying, but not even that sometimes.

So she wasn’t surprised when things came to a head, and Junko switched completely, asking for help catching up. Which she did of course. She knew what it was like after all to be behind. It was never even a question.

It was odd when Junko just started showing up at her house unannounced, but Homura always let her in.

By the time they hit 18 and Junko asked to move in with her, she wasn’t even surprised, and the only real transition was moving the rest of Junko’s things.

Then the day with the train accident happened, and she saw her soul gem glow. She had immediately headed over, leaving Junko to her own devices.

After quickly killing the witch, she texted Junko to see where she’d gone, getting the location of a coffee shop oddly enough. She knew Junko prefered alcohol, especially for a situation like this, but she ignored it.

Then she went in, and saw two people.

One was Tomohisa Kaname, or maybe his name was different now considering it was before these two got married.

The other was a person with a plate bolted to their chest, and a chain hanging off of it. Tomohisa catching her look at them, and saying. “You can see spirits too?” The resulting conversation was both illuminating, and deeply irritating. She didn't let even a hint of that anger cross her face though, she wasn't angry with Tomohisa after all. She was angry at finding another thing the Incubator hadn't told her.

They ended up all exchanging phone numbers, and Homura was happy with knowing they would likely work themselves out.

They seemingly did so to, making her come along as they hung out. At first she was wondering why they weren’t dating yet, as they didn’t seem to be having any meetings together without her. Then after a while she realized they were dating, and that they were bringing her along. She wasn't entirely sure how to feel about this, especially since she was pretty sure it was mostly to get her to “actually do things” as Junko put it.

She tried to say it wasn’t necessary to bring her along to their dates if they were just trying to get her out of the house, but both of them ignored her and dragged her along anyways while smiling at her.

It took several months, but then she realized it made her feel… warm. Being around them was nice in a way she hadn’t really felt before besides possibly Madoka herself.

She'd gotten feelings for them. She wasn’t exactly sure what form they took, but she definitely had them.

This opened the floodgates, her mind bouncing between consequences and logistics. Trying to figure out what to do. Trying to figure out how they would react. How she should act about this.

For a second, she tried to justify the feelings away with an internal, ” _They love each other, so they couldn’t fall for me anyways. Not without breaking up, and that's impossible. The only other **possible** way would be for all three of them to date-”_

… wait.

She waited for the next date to happen, then when Tomohisa came to their door she asked. “Is this a date between the three of us?” Both Junko and Tomohisa froze, nodding after a moment.

She stared at them for a moment, then walked past leaving them having to catch up as she moved briskly to their destination without saying a word.

The warmth of her cheeks as her partners(?) smiled at her, obviously knowing this was her way of accepting wasn’t very helpful though.


	47. Shinigami Homura 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Homura dies before she meets Madoka, and ends up in soul society.

Homura woke up, breathing heavily. 

… where was she…? She was in a strange town that looked like it was in terrible condition. At least compared to what she was used to. Last she’d checked she’d- _The fire!_ she’d managed to get out of the hospital early and… everything had burned. _she’d burned_. Now she was here. 

… did that mean…? Was she dead? The thought hurt, even if she hadn’t expected to live the longest life with her condition. Having it cut short now was- it hurt. Had her parents died too? If so, was this the afterlife? And where were her parents?

She resolved to find them. No matter how long it took.

She found out where she was. One of the outer Rokun districts. Where she had ended up having to join a group of other children. She had to try her hardest to survive with them, as not only she could feel hunger, something that many souls didn’t need to do. The Rokun was also terrible, with little food and many people competing and fighting for survival. Not even mentioning the hollows in the woods and forests. She hasn’t even known about hollows before she came here. Although it probably wouldn’t have mattered if she had been anyone else. All the other children she was trying to survive with didn’t remember anything about their lives.

She had to work hard. Every day. Learning how to do whatever it took to survive out here. Whatever it took to find her parents again. They considered not bringing her along at first, and she couldn’t blame them. She had been weak, and unskilled. But her little bit of knowledge she had gained from her frequent hospital visits was far more than any of the others. So they kept her around for when someone got hurt as she worked as hard as she could to get good at other things as well. At least she no longer had her condition.

And she did. She became exceedingly good at stealing and hiding, one of the best in the group. So she survived.

Even as others didn’t.

She didn’t have much chance to leave the area she was in, so it was hard to search. But she wouldn’t let that stop her. Even as her group slowly died, and others joined up. Slowly only one of the original members she’d met was there. Her only real friend there. They stole together, and worked together. Eventually, they left together too. Trying to search for her parents, or at least hopefully sneak into a better district. They searched, avoiding hollows and other people when they could. They occasionally saw shinigami on the road, watching them as they went about their business. Till one day it went wrong as they were relatively far from any towns. Until they stumbled into a fight between some shinigami and hollows.

The shinigami were obviously winning, one in particular not even seeming challenged. Although several other were injured, and _one got flung past them, knocking out her friend from her hiding spot and causing her to yell out in pain._ Homura immediately stilled, as she realized the shinigami had just been finishing up, and the… _dead_ one that had been thrown away had left her friend in full view, and unable to stand. Homura almost moved, then _he_ spoke. The massive man from earlier who hadn’t seemed challenged or hurt. “Well looks like a target has come to us. You all know the drill, our current mission is to kill some of the outer rukon to preserve the spiritual balance.” her friend looked unbearably scared, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. The man radiated power and terror. She couldn’t move an inch.

Which was why she could only watch as he continued, closer to her friend. “Let's get this over with as fast as possible so I can head back.” _Then he sliced through her friend._ she still couldn’t move, terror filling her. But not all of it was fear of him anymore. Some of it was a fear he would get away. That he would get away with murdering her friend. The fear slowly turned into a burning anger. The conflicting feelings keeping her in her hiding spot until the _monsters_ , most notably the one with the _11_ on his back, had left. Where she grieved over her friends' slowly dispersing body.

After a couple… hours? She couldn’t be sure. She noticed the body of the shinigami. The sword at their side. She didn’t know much about the swords, but she knew they were part of what made shinigami strong. That and spiritual power. She knew she had the second… So what if she had the first? Would she be able to get retribution against the man who killed her friend in cold blood?

She took the blade.

After that, she had to learn how to fight the hard way. Trial and error in life or death situations. Often fighting hollows she encountered with the unfamiliar sword she wielded. But she persevered. Just barely. Always making sure to be as careful as possible. She had no one to help her, so a devastating blow would be the end of her. So she never allowed herself to be hit. Avoiding attacks, and hitting as hard as possible when she could. Slowly… she got stronger. Even as she occasionally nearly died, she forced herself forward. Keeping herself in the best condition she could.

She slowly got better. Fighting those who attacked her, hollows, or just practicing. Trying to figure out what would be terrible, and why. It was hard. _but she learned_. Occasionally she had dreams, where what seemed to be another, blurry and indistinct version of herself taught her how to fight _better_. It was always odd. Especially as they grew in frequency every night. But the skills worked, so she wouldn’t complain. She would need everything she could to defeat that man.

But for all of that, one day, she succeeded. _She found her parents._

She spotted them in one of the lower districts, while searching for food to buy with money she took with gangs that attempted to fight her. Tears leaked from her eyes as she looked at them, the two people who cared about her most. She almost ran over, until they looked at her, _and the look in their eyes told her all she needed to know_.

They didn’t remember.

… of course they didn’t. Nothing good could ever happen to her. Nobody ever stayed.

_**She couldn’t rely on anyone but herself.** _


	48. Shinigami Homura 2

Homura continued training, fighting, and hiding. Taking money off gangs and assholes and using it to survive as she traveled. Occasionally she checked up on her parents, and made sure they were doing well. She had been approached by them, that time when she first noticed them. That interaction had confirmed that they didn’t remember. So she never bothered them with it. The worst part was they were almost exactly how she remembered them, less wealthy sure, but still caring. Even though they didn’t know she was their daughter. Didn’t even know they had a daughter. She wished they would remember, but she wouldn’t know how to make that happen.

Every time she visited, she had to hold back the pain and tears. But she always left them some of the money she gathered.

She was always careful to attract as little attention as possible, hiding her sword as best she could. Always hiding, and running. Even learning how to hide her presence from others, which she used to watch shinigami patrols as they fought hollows, desperate to observe them and copy their techniques as best she could later. Slowly figuring out how to use her energy for things as she fought and fought. As slowly, her dream copy became clearer and clearer, she realized something.

There were two. Their forms had been indistinct at first, but as their forms became less blurred, it became obvious. One had white hair, and a black dress. While the other had black hair and a white dress. Both looking like her. Both teaching her how to fight, and sparring with her. The longer she survived, and trained, the more she began noticing injuries from her dreams become real when she woke up. She had figured out they were more than dreams awhile ago. But this was a whole new level of weird. Not that it mattered much. She was getting stronger and stronger by the day. Until eventually, in one of her dreams, she realized she had never asked if they had names.

When asked, they said they shared the name Homulilly. Which had meant she had needed to nickname them to avoid confusion. The one with white hair, she nicknamed Lilly, and the one with black, Homu. They weren’t exactly creative nicknames, but they did the job. Although she found out what the name meant later, when fighting a large group of hollows. One of them managed to get a nasty hit on her, and she knew if she didn’t kill them as soon as possible, she would die from blood loss at best. Which was when she heard them talk in unison. “Speak our name, and release our power.”

  
  
She had nothing to lose, as she felt her instincts kick in, and she spoke. “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Render existence to your threads Homulilly!” she was unsure why that had all come out of her mouth, but when her sword started radiating purple fire and energy. She decided to ignore it. What she couldn’t ignore were the flames, ~~_s_ _o similar to the day she died,_~~ burning in her hand from the blade. Even as it separated into two distinct forms. A shield on her left arm, and what appeared to be an exceptionally thin rapier in the other. As the transformation finished, color seeped out of the world as her shield turned. Leaving everything other than herself frozen and letting her take out the hollows quickly and efficiently. Even as she felt it quickly burning through her reserves.

After she finished, and managed to deactivate the transformation, leaving a single sword, with a thinner blade and a large handguard, a blade that felt more _her_ , She thought. The hollows had temporarily unfrozen when she hit them… so if she fought the shinigami that had killed her friend like this… she could kill him. She would just have to be fast, and merciless.

Then she noticed she was… taller? Had the release messed with her physical age? Oh well, that didn’t matter.

So after recovering, she headed to seireitei while training as hard as possible. Sparring with Homu and Lilly every night. Until she made it there, and while it was difficult, she managed to wait until the man stepped out. What she now knew was a captain. One of the leaders of the gotei 13.

Not that that would stop her.

However, she didn’t want to be hunted down by seireitei for killing him, so she would try something simple first, and hope it would be enough. As the monster walked through town, likely on a mission, she stepped out into the road. Then she pulled out her sword, aiming it at him. “I challenge you to a duel to the death.”

He looked at her, and laughed with his squad. Obviously thinking she wouldn’t be much of a challenge. “I don’t think you know who you’re challenging, girl, but I’ll accept your request to die.” then one of the squad members with him said something, and things got complicated. Something about it being a show the rest of their division could watch and rules or something. But when it became clear that they were going to bring her to their division for the duel, she complied. Worst came to worst, she was skilled at running and hiding at this point.

When they were in the training area, surrounded by members of the eleventh who seemed like they weren’t impressed. Although some of them were eyeing her sword, possibly wondering if it was actually one of theirs.

She just waited for the perfect moment, waiting for the duel to begin. Then the captain spoke. “I am Kenpachi Kiganjo, Captain of the eleventh. I’ll kill you and finish the job I had to go do. Let’s begin.” he pulled out his sword, obviously preparing to attack. 

So she responded by yelling the activation phrase of her sword, visibly shocking a good chunk of the division, and seemingly making her taller. As soon as they were finished, she activated the shield. Stopping the captain in his tracks. She quickly ran around behind him, focused, and flashed as fast as she could. Aiming her sword right for his spine as she concentrated all her animosity into the attack. Focusing her power into the rapier.

And cutting right through, disengaging the time stop, and watching as he couldn’t do anything with a blade through his neck. Quickly pulling it out, and leaving him to fall on the ground. The division quiet around her.

Then they started cheering for the “new Kenpachi” and “our new captain”.

… wait what? What exactly had she done? Did killing him in a duel mean she was in charge of these people now?

… shit. 


	49. Shinigami Homura 3

Things got complicated after that as a captains meeting had to be called about the… sudden replacement of their last one. Turns out the eleventh was captained by a string of “Kenpachi’s”, who had set up the division to be exclusively taken over by duels to the death, the person who wins becoming the next Kenpachi.

… which meant she just set herself to people trying to kill her to take her job as she had practically no formal training. Not to mention her name was now “Kenpachi”. Which was its own challenge to iron out. Making Homura her middle name and insisting everyone called her that or Akemi worked relatively well on most of the other captains. Except the captain’s of the fifth and second squads, Shinji and Yoruichi, she didn’t like them.

But being in their presence really made her aware of just how bad an idea it would be to run, she could feel the power burning under the surface.

So she got shackled with paperwork. Just great. Not to mention her division often got uppity as they tried to beat her for the title, and most of her free time was spent researching, learning, and training so she could catch up to where a captain could be as soon as possible.

The first few years were rough as she filled the gaps in her knowledge and skillset, while slowly earning the respect of the eleventh, not even mentioning the occasional mission she got. But slowly everything got a bit easier. The eleventh seemed to finally get it into their heads that she was out of their league for now. Albeit by not as wide a margin as she would like. Most of the holes in her skillset were gone, so she could focus more on improving in ways that interested her. Not to mention she knew the laws now, and roughly how she was supposed to do things, so she made sure to never, at any point tell _anyone_ about her zanpakuto’s true power. Causing most people to assume it was some form of teleportation or illusion zanpakuto. Honestly, throughout her whole time there, two of the oldest captains kept trying to talk to her because of her “dual zanpakuto”. Even if it was a sword and shield instead of twin blades. At least they were always up for spars and teaching her what they knew, she hated relying on them, but also couldn’t turn down their help. Although the first time she used her shikai again, and she ended up being… roughly twelve again physically, even they had seemed surprised. Having her lieutenant confirm her identity at the captains meeting had been deeply aggravating, and she ended up glaring at half the room.

Other than that, she always made sure to go off when she could to check up on her parents when she had an opportunity, going off as stealthily as possible to meet them while not being followed. Which was why she was _deeply_ irritated and slightly scared when right after one of her visits Yoruichi showed up, obviously having followed her, and causing her to curse her own incompetence and negligence. Thankfully Yoruichi was actually… rather helpful. Even promising not to tell anybody since it was clear this wasn’t some plot against Soul Society. As well as offering to make their lives easier by getting the Shiba clan to make them retainers. She hesitated, but eventually caved. She’d met quite a bit of the Shiba clan, and she knew they were good people. Getting her family into Soul Society in a… relatively unconnected way would be nice.

Honestly, the hardest thing she had to do was Bankai training. She couldn’t afford one of her lieutenants getting it first and managing to use it to take her place through force. Thankfully, she managed to summon Homulilly into the physical world after a couple of years of practice, and finished Bankai training shortly after. Which she immediately regretted, as its first use to test it out in a place nobody else could observe did something she didn’t expect.

Her age started changing randomly. Sometimes she was one of the tallest captains, other times she was barely a preteen. Yet throughout all of this she still needed her glasses. Of course.

Time passed after that, the captain of the twelfth leaving and being replaced by an assassin named Urahara, and the lieutenant Aizen who worked up his ranks from the fifth, not even mentioning the others who slowly switched in and out. Then several captains and lieutenants were gone in one go after they were hollowfied. That was… certainly a thing that happened. Made her paperwork skyrocket for a while, but in the end the Gotei 13 got past it.

Then Zaraki came, and tried to take her title. She had immediately been cautious because of the immense power she felt from him, but as soon as the fight started she knew “cautious” wasn’t going to cut it. Especially after she realized his skin was acting as _armor_. 

The fight went on for… awhile. She lost track early on between frequent time stops and hitting him whenever she could. Always making sure to _dodge_.

In the end, the battle went on so long Unohana showed up, which was good, as they managed to critically injure each other in a devastating duel. Which she had to heal them from. Which left everyone in a bit of an odd position, as the duel was “to the death”, yet they had both landed killshots.

In the end, she made an executive decision, and made him her co-captain, as well as willingly giving him the title and name of Kenpachi as she didn’t particularly want the title anyways. Not that that really satisfied him, causing them to have to spar once a week. At least until they got a spar ban while the current head of R&D could set up an area warded enough to take their clashes. One thing fighting Kenpachi had done for her was make her train _harder_. She’d almost had the same thing happen to her that she’d done to Kiganjo, and she didn’t like her chances of it being a “near death” next time. Especially since she was pretty sure the only reason she was allowed to get away with the co-captain thing was because she was the first captain of the eleventh in ages to actually do the paperwork.

One thing it didn’t do for her, was cause people to stop calling her Kenpachi. While most were happy to oblige, especially now that the “pranksters” were gone. Half her division kept being insubordinate and calling her Kenpachi. While the other half called her “Pachi” since Kenpachi’s adopted daughter Yachiru, who was powerful in her own right, called him Kenny. She wasn’t sure which half she wanted to stab more.

One day Aizen challenged her to a friendly spar, on a day where the eleventh had been more annoying than usual, including Kenpachi, so she was in a deeply bad mood. She had accepted in an attempt to burn off her emotions, but then she shikai’d early so she could get an advantage if he tried any tricky attacks or moves.

When she ended up as small as Yachiru, she felt her rage spike, especially from the mildly confused look on his face.

That was it! She was done! “BANKAI!” She saw a bit of concern on his face from the sudden escalation, too bad he didn’t know the half of it-

…

It made her _smaller_.

Rage just completely consumed her from all the stress, and she engaged the offensive form of her Bankai. Causing black energy wings to spread out from her back, fourteen odd constructs that looked somewhat like her to appear, and a long needle like weapon to appear in her hands. With the “dolls” attacking him at all sides, he quickly put up a barrier. Which proved to be a mistake when she just showed him what her wings were capable of. The look of fear on his face when she was suddenly in his face when she had moved in right after wrecking his barrier had been pretty entertaining honestly. Which probably meant she should spend less time around Kenpachi, not that she really cared. Well, ok. She cared a little when Unohana gave her a lecture about not nearly killing other captains in friendly spars. Especially in such a vicious way that not only had said captain not been able to activate their shikai, said captain also would need a year to spend exclusively recovering.

Although afterwards, when Kenpachi offered to carry her on his back like Yachiru, she gave up and accepted. At least partially because she had just _thoroughly_ dealt with all her stress. But also because she was just a little too exhausted from being lectured by Unohana to care.

Not a lot happened after that if she was honest, the Shiba’s slowly became… kinda friends. If only because she visited her parents so often. Which worked for her, as it gave her a cover for it. Aizen seemed to avoid her like the plague after that, not that she could blame him.

Honestly, the only two relatively interesting events were the captain’s of the sixth and tenth being replaced. The sixth because of old age, and the tenth because he just disappeared into thin air. Being replaced by Byakuya Kuchiki and Toshiro Hitsugaya respectfully. At least Toshiro seemed to understand her pain of being absurdly young and short compared to the other captains, even if her height randomly changed so that sometimes she was taller as well.

But eventually Mayuri said some stuff was up in some far away part of Hueco Mundo, and another branch of Soul Society needed help with the resulting Hollow problem. She ended up volunteering and heading over there.

She was pretty sure they were not expecting her response to hearing the full details of the situation would be to hunt a group of hollows, and force one to retreat while jumping through the ripped open Garganta. But that's on them, she’d packed a massive amount of food and resources in her shield for situations like this anyways.

Now the hard part.

She began her _hunt_.


	50. Shinigami Homura 4

Ichigo readied himself, Aizen was getting more powerful by the second, and so far had resisted everything he’d thrown at him. It was looking like his only option was to try the Final Getsuga and hope that was enough. Just as he was about to begin the technique, they were both surprised by a sudden, childlike voice. “I leave for two years, and I come back to this.” He looked to the right, shocked by the sight of a young black haired girl in a captain's uniform. One smaller than Yachiru! 

Just as he was about to say something, Aizen spoke first. “It’s too late Homura, I will soon create a Kings Key and become a god!” That caused him to look back, alarmed. The words sounded confidant, but the _tone_ was different then anything Aizen had used so far. It was full of _fear._ It was obviously being covered up, relatively well even, but it was _there_. He was just confused, he had _no_ idea who this girl was, and he was pretty sure all the captains were accounted for. 

But before he could think about it anymore, the girl continued. “... I just got back and now a former captain is trying to break into the King's Realm while looking like some unholy abomination… You! Boy! Can you still fight!” He realized she was talking to him.

He guessed she was older than she looked, and decided to roll with it. “Ya, I can still fight. But with the Hogyoku he’s survived everything thrown at him.” she raised an eyebrow as she jumped up near him.

“Is the Hogyoku the orb floating in his chest?” when he nodded, she visibly prepared herself. “Alright then.” She suddenly bursted right into Shikai. “Let’s go.” 

He shunpo’d for Aizen as she disappeared, as he attempted to attack Aizen from the front, she pincered him from the back. Then bounced back when his wings attempted to attack her back. The fight intensified after that, Ichigo able to fight Aizen more effectively with the strange girl often working with him for pincers, and just generally giving Aizen hell. 

But even with that, they weren’t making much progress. Aizen regenerated from any damage they dealt. To the point he was considering the Final Getsuga again.

Then she suddenly went into Bankai. He saw Aizen’s eyes widen as he turned toward the growing girl as she turned into one of the tallest people Ichigo had ever _seen_. But he quickly took the opportunity to release several slashes on Aizen's back while he was distracted. Just as Aizen was forced to turn around to defend himself, He saw a massive flare of power from the odd captain, and suddenly Aizen came _apart_. Bisected in several different ways, and his limbs and wings practically blasted off. He watched in shock, but realized the parts were trying to come back together. He attacked them, realizing the girl had grabbed the Hogyoku and was doing… _something_ with the black wings flowing from her back.

He attacked rapidly, keeping the former captain from regenerating as much as possible. After a few minutes, he heard a _shattering_ sound, and looked up at the broken Hogyoku. He was so shocked, he didn’t notice Aizen finally regenerate, not that he did much besides watch her in shock as well.

He didn’t get a chance to do anything, Urahara quickly coming out of nowhere to seal the madman. Leaving the girl floating for a moment, before she said two words. 

“Catch me.”

Then she released her power, and she fell. He quickly dashed over and grabbed her as she fell unconscious. He guessed whatever she’d done had been exhausting. So he let her rest. He did have some questions for Urahara though.


	51. Shinigami Homura 5

Ichigo looked at the girl, who had shrunk back down upon shutting of her bankai, which based on what Urahara was telling him, she was gonna be _pissed_ about. The co captain to _Kenpachi_. Hell, she apparently used to have the name. He could even believe it considering she had somehow _destroyed_ the hogyoku. Most of Soul Society had been so distracted with… everything else. That she also ended up accidentally landing in the real world with him as Karakura town got put back, and the fake with _all the shinigami_ went back to Soul Society. Not to mention that Urahara had said that to get through right now would mean another trip through the dangai, and honestly? He wasn’t feeling up for that. The fight against Aizen had pushed him to his limits, and if it hadn’t been for her, probably would have pushed past them.

Permanently.

Which was why he was doing his best to work with his family and take care of her while she was unconscious. Her wounds had already been healed, so she just needed to get past the exhaustion and stress from her bankai. Urahara had put her in a gigai to save her energy, but it still took several days before she woke up. When she did, she asked why she wasn’t in Seireitei, he told her of the circumstances. That caused her to just stare at him for a minute, before sighing, and sat back in her bed. She then asked for a more thorough explanation of what had happened while she was gone, so he told her everything that had happened since he became a substitute shinigami, trying his best to explain it well.

Halfway through he saw her twitching, and by the end she just looked like she was about to stab someone. “What's wrong?” He asked, really hoping he wasn’t stepping on her toes.  
  
“I almost killed him in a sparring match once. I’ll admit, it was mostly because of rage and stress, but I almost did, and if I had this whole mess wouldn’t have happened.” he was stunned, and honestly understood the slight tone of fear that had entered Aizen's voice when she appeared. Even if, as he saw from her over the next few days, she acted very calm most of the time. But she had almost killed a fellow captain during a _spar_ , just because she was angry.

He honestly thought she was more worthy of the name Kenpachi than the current one. Sure Kenpachi was extremely powerful, and always wanted a fight, but even he didn’t escalate spars with other captains into death matches because he happened to be in a bad mood. Although to be fair, if he was sparring with a captain he was probably having the time of his life, so maybe this was a poor comparison.

But he also noticed how closed off she acted, how lonely she seemed to be when his Yuzu made her food, or Karin brought her out for soccer. He may not be entirely sure how old she actually was, or what was going on with her, but she would be an honorary Korusaki by the time she left. He was pretty sure his sisters had already done so in their heads, and while he hadn’t talked to goat face, even he’d helped out, and between everything… he didn’t think his old man would disagree. If he hadn’t already as well.

Eventually, she did leave. But oddly her first stop wasn’t Soul Society. She headed off to _somewhere_ in the living world from what he heard from Urahara, and then headed to Seireitei. He wasn’t sure what was up with that, but he didn’t question it.

After that, she visited more and more often, seemingly bored out of her mind. Apparently she’d just spent two years hunting hollows in Hueco Mundo before she came back, so she had to deal with a sudden and exceedingly boring re-introduction to paperwork. Often, she just took a large quantity with her, and just hung around them silently as she filled out forms.

When they outright told her she was a part of the family, she actually seemed close to tears. For about five seconds. After which she vaguely pretended she hadn’t heard them.

Considering she came to their house far more often after that, none of them were fooled.

Many things happened after that, like Xcution, various shinigami visiting, and him and his friends starting college. Honestly the one thing he wasn’t expecting to happen was for Homura to say she was taking a vacation and that she’d visit, when he’d looked her up and down and asked how she’d do that while looking fourteen she’d given him a Toshiro level glare.

He hoped things would work out for her in Mitakihara.


	52. Shinigami Homura 5.5

Karin had been watching Homura while they all ate dinner together, and realized that while she was being politely neutral, she had very little idea about how to react to their teasing of each other.

… jeez, how much did this _actual captain_ separate herself from others? "Homura!" The currently childlike girl looked towards her. "That's just them teasing, it's a way to show affection." Yuzu seemed mildly annoyed at how blunt she had been about it, but Homura often preferred bluntness anyway. Now being no exception, as while she still seemed confused, she seemed more relaxed now.

After a while of more back and forth, Ichigo had started saying something about how Shakespeare's works are great, which caused Homura to look at him, dead in the eye, and say. "Watch the ballet version sometime, then you can talk, bookworm." They all looked at her, and Karin started laughing while Ichigo started poking the girls knowledge of Shakespeare.

That attempt at teasing was inexperienced, but it certainly showed her one thing. She finally had someone who could approach her level of sarcasm!


	53. Shinigami Homura 6

Homura always felt a bit odd when Rah showed up, she was weird, and powerful, but kind. She had healed her, and while it had been unintentional, the girl had been caught by her parents and her.

Rah hadn’t been cooperative about a lot of information, but had confirmed after one of her parents said they could see spirits, that she was a relative, and that she was very skilled. After that, her parents said she was welcome whenever. Rah had seemed shocked, and had tried to get out of it, but her parents had fought her about it until she accepted it.

She didn’t show up very often, but she was always… interesting. She had somehow gotten a fake body, or fake bodies really, considering she would randomly change sizes between visits. While she never really said anything much about herself, or what she could do, she did seem to try to talk with them.

She was intimidating, and it had been hard to talk with the girl at first, but it turned out they liked a lot of the same stuff! And she was helpful when she asked.

It was still hard though, while her heart condition was better, she still had problems. Progress was slow, Rah often having to heal her more, slowly improving her condition. But she was still weak. She still often had to take breaks from school, but at least she had one friend now, at least she was slowly getting better.

Two years passed in the blink of an eye, and between finding out that Mitakihara had no Hollow’s, the city having good medical services, and it was one of the better places for her parents to work on what's going on in their business.

Then they got a message from Rah that she was going on vacation, and would like to stay with them for a while. Her parents accepted immediately.

It was a little odd, because Rah ended up looking roughly the same age as her, and ended up going to school with her. It was both nice and weird having the girl at her side as they were introduced. Although at the same time… she still suffered trying to get through the day. The interruptions in her schooling making it difficult to do anything, and she was still weak…

Not to mention that she didn’t want to bother her… currently, legally, her sister.

~~How had that been done?~~

In the end, she didn’t even go home with her, Rah wanting to go off to do some things.

Which was how she found out about magical girls.

Madoka and Mami saved her. They were fighting to protect people.

Madoka encouraged her, even though she didn’t make a wish.

She was cautious of course, Kyubey didn’t mention anything about Hollow’s or spirits. So she left him to continue talking. Waiting to see if he would bring it up. Not that he ever did.

She almost wanted to bring it up to Rah… but if the girl was on vacation…

She didn’t want to bother her.

But Madoka kept encouraging her, and helping her. Even Madoka’s friend Sayaka helped sometimes.

She was making friends… she was happy!

Then Rah said she had something she was interested in within a nearby city, and left for a couple days.

Which left her friends from having back up when Walpurgisnacht hit.

When her friends fell, when **_Madoka_** fell… well, she only really had one choice.

She made her wish.

The second time around, she joined her friends, helping them get stronger and working with them for Walpurgisnacht. Surely, with all three of them, they would win! She wouldn’t even have to bother her kinda sister on her vacation! Although now that she could kinda feel the girl… she wasn’t sure if she should anyways, the girl didn’t feel all that powerful. At least compared to Mami or Madoka…

In the end though, they weren’t, and Homura had to watch as her friend's soul gem turned into a grief seed.

The third time, she waited a day, then when Rah appeared, she took her to her room and told her everything, hoping she would believe it. Rah’s expression gets angrier throughout the explanation. By the time she was done, she was terrified of the deeply enraged look on Rah’s face, but before she could say anything more, the girl breathed in and out.

Then hugged her.

“I will help, alright?”

She hugged her new sister back. Crying into the girl's shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in case it isn't clear, shinigami Homura saved her past self and parents.


	54. Shinigami Homura (unnumbered)

_ Everything was going outstanding, the world was practically his for the taking. Nobody could match him, even when he barely used his Zanpakuto. Everything was going perfectly- suddenly, everything was **hot** , a dark figure with a knifelike smile and burning purple eyes appeared in front of him. Their blade flashing before he could blink, and them growing shorter and shorter, especially once the blade flashed again. The figure’s presence became so actively hostile that it almost made him take a step back. _

_ But he was a genius of unparalleled skill, and immensely strong to boot. He wouldn’t let fear guide him when- **the speed at which they came at him was beyond the pale.** He barely put up a barrier in time, reinforcing it into the strongest he could on instinct to protect himself while fourteen more smiles appeared. _

_ Then a massive pair of disturbing, dark wings appeared from the main figure, and as his barrier was ripped to shreds he knew **A G O N Y-** _

Aizen jolted up, breathing heavily as the memories wouldn’t stop replaying. Fear heavy in his stomach.

After a minute, he laid back down, trying to focus on _any_ of his ongoing experiments or theories. Even just something to possibly learn. But every time he closed his eyes he just remembered _Her_.

There weren’t people he considered his equals, there weren’t even many he considered very dangerous.

He didn’t think of her as an equal though.

All he felt like when around her was like he was a wolf.

A wolf facing down with a _very_ angry tiger.

… It was a good thing she was gone currently, or else he wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to advance his plans.


	55. Madoka's Chance 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Homura manages to save Madoka, and get a promise out of her to never contract.
> 
> As her final act.
> 
> None of the rest of the quintet made it either.
> 
> Madoka won't accept that.

Madoka cried.

She cried as Homura died. After managing to get a promise out of her.

To not contract, ever.

After everything, she had managed to lose Mami, Sayaka, Kyoko, and Homura, in about a month.

She almost wanted to break her promise, but she had managed to get Homura to talk to her.

She couldn't just break her promise to Homura, not after Homura had done her damnedest to uphold her promise.

So she cried.

A few years passed, she learned more about the world. She learned about her dad's ability to see ghosts. She learned various subjects in school. She learned what it was like to be questioned about what happened to her friends. _~~the friends that were never ever **ever** coming back~~ She learned what grief felt like._

The day they were contacted by Kisuke Urahara was one she will always remember.

She finally had the opportunity for some revenge. She didn't care about the Incubators stated goals, it had taken all of her friends. As well as countless others she didn't know about.

So she told them **_everything._**

When Urahara seemed to visibly think, and then asked her if she wanted to use the time machine he had been working on when he finished it, her answer was obvious.

She finally had a chance to save her friends, and keep her promise.

It took a year, but they taught her how to use her power and fight in the meantime, so she would hopefully be ready.

Not that she was doing this alone, as the large group behind her could attest.

As she leapt into the portal, with several others closely behind, she wondered when exactly she would end up. Urahara hadn't been clear on that. Although whether that was because he wasn't sure or was just being a troll was anyone's guess.

Not that it mattered, no matter where she ended up, she would save her friends.


	56. Madoka's Chance 2

Madoka jerked awake, feeling her power’s settling and her soul merging with her old one. It felt… odd. Like she was both at once, but at the same time her experiences just sort of… combined. She let herself take a moment to let all of her old memories merge, until she felt it all settle.

After waiting a moment, she got up, and looked around. It gave her deja vu, looking at her room as it used to be. She reached for her phone and quickly checked the date. Her eyes widened as she checked the date.

March sixteenth. The day Homura time traveled to. She was concerned, but it would give her time. She wished she’d gone back further though. Preventing her friends from contracting in the first place. She was honestly surprised about the precision, and wondered whether Urahara was better than he’d been suggesting, or whether… Was it because of Homura’s wish? She hoped not, as that would mean Homura would remember, and hoped not.

She remembered every timeline. She’d remembered a while ago, after her training to access her inner world. She remembered how Homura used to act, before she put up her shields to defend herself. Changing drastically to continue protecting her.

She hoped Homura wouldn’t have to go through any of that, but she wouldn’t be able to check till after school. She would tell her parents later, but she needed to check first. She heard her phone ping with a message, which she quickly checked, seeing the groupchat had been created for her and the rest of the time travelers. She was shocked how fast Urahara got all the phone numbers of them in the past together, but after confirming, she headed off.

She had to hold herself back from crying when she met Sayaka and Hitomi. After Sayaka had died, Hitomi had been depressed, thinking it was her fault. They had often ended up trying to pretend nothing happened while hanging out, while after a while they’d both obviously healed, they’d also both been hurt deeply. Not even mentioning what actually happened to Sayaka...

She wouldn’t let either of them suffer again.

So she hung out with them throughout the day, holding herself back from tears. Until afterwards, where she knew she had something she needed to check. Not to mention that Sayaka had noticed her strange behavior, and asked her if she was ok. She’d said she was ok, but she needed to get away before she spilled herself completely in front of the girl while she was still deciding what to do.

She quickly ran to where she remembered Homura’s apartment was, feeling for the girl within it as well. Eventually feeling the girl and realizing it was likely too late.

Unless Homura was naturally about as powerful as a lieutenant, she didn’t like her chances that the girl wasn’t already a magical girl. That still left her with something to do. She could feel the girls' reiatsu grow tense and confused as she got near. Likely noticing her own power approaching.

When she knocked on the door, she felt the girls confusion spike, but waited. When the door opened, she saw Homura looking at her, face perfectly blank. “Homura?” The mask shattered from the shock, but she nodded after a moment.

She quickly tackled the girl, hugging her closely as she cried. “I _remember_ Homura, you aren’t alone anymore, now don’t leave. _please don’t leave again_.” She felt a storm of confused emotions coming from Homura, but the girl quickly hugged her back.

She had her friends back, and she wouldn’t let go of them again.


	57. Madoka's Chance 3

Homura slowly pulled her best friend inside, head spinning as she tried to process what her best friend had just told her. She kept looking down at the girls ring finger as she sat the girl down, always thinking the magical girl ring would be there. But it wasn’t there.

She wondered how Madoka came back, or what had happened, especially given how… _powerful_ the girl felt. She was far stronger than normal. But at the same time… as long as the girl listened it didn’t really matter. She was worried about what she had said. Madoka said she had left. She had likely _died_ , and now her friend was crying in her arms.

Once Madoka had calmed down a bit, she breathed in and began talking. “All of you died, but I promised you I wouldn’t contract. I was left _alone_ for years. I had my family, and Hitomi, but I always knew it was my fault…”

Homura reacted immediately. “No it wasn’t! If anything it was mine-” But then Madoka grabbed her shoulders before she could finish.

“If I hadn’t been tricked all those timelines ago, or if I had just managed to barely survive, things would have been better…” Homura had no idea what she wanted to say, but she had a feeling neither of them would back down. So she hugged the girl close, one hand on the back of her best friend's head and the other wrapped around her back. Now that she was looking, Madoka had her hair down. An occurrence she hadn’t seen much in previous timelines except when she was guarding the girls house from the Incubator. It was also a sign of how things had changed.

She listened though as Madoka went over all sorts of things she’d learned. Things the Incubator had never told her. About spirits, hollows, and shinigami. About how they had allies in this timeline.

About how Madoka remembered _every, single, timeline_.

… she hoped the girl would forgive her someday for… that.

But today, they had work to do.


	58. Some Slight Insanity 8

Kyoko hunted, looking for a witch. She could use the spare grief seed. She was running low, especially since witches had been oddly absent lately. She suspected someone was hunting witches in her territory, but she hadn’t found anyone yet. Not yet at least.

So she kept an eye out nearby using her magic. Watching for anything out of place as she watched her soul gem. _god she was hungry_. She shook her head, camping down on some rocky. She can find more food after getting another grief seed. She really was worryingly low so that went before everything.

Then she felt two magic signatures enter her territory, and quickly headed over. Especially because she recognized one.

What the hell was Mami doing in her territory?!

The girl's magic was flared too. Not in the way that happened after transformation, but the way that suggested she wanted to be found. She wanted to talk.

Kyoko didn’t particularly care to talk, the girl was likely just around to lecture her.

If this was important though, then she couldn’t just leave it. Mami hadn’t appeared to lecture her yet, so she was probably fine from that. As long as the girl wasn’t here just to do that.

That wasn’t even mentioning the other feeling. The girl that felt powerful, but also… slightly wrong. The rapidly spinning and burningly cold starshine was off-putting. Like their magic and emotions were too intense to fully hold back.

Then she found them, Mami and an odd black haired girl who gasped upon seeing her- she almost transformed as suddenly she was tackled to the ground with a pair of arms suddenly around her while she suddenly heard the words. “Red Wife!” The long black hair falling around her. She almost threw the girl off, but chose to focus more on Mami first since this girl seemed… mostly safe.

“What the fuck Mami?”

Mami’s face seemed a little shocked and confused, both at her and the girl, but quickly covered it up after a moment. A small, slightly embarrassed smile covering her face. “I’m sorry Kyoko, Homura’s… very affectionate and not very…” the girl seemed to be struggling to think of a word.

  
  


“Crazy?” she asked.

Before Mami could respond, the girl wrapping her arms around her did. “Yep!” She shivered as she got a glimpse of the girls oddly unhinged purple eyes.

What was going on?

  
  
“I… we have a lot to talk about Kyoko. Could you please come with us? I would like to… apologize.” Mami’s speech was oddly stilted, but she seemed to be telling the truth.

Mami wanted to apologize?

What did she have to apologize for, it was mostly her decision.

She would listen though.

“... Would this girl get off me already!” given how the girl seemed to rub her head into her, and squeezed tighter, that was a no. She could hear Mami giggle a little.

Ass. She was just going to laugh while she didn’t do anything to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kyoko: exists  
> crazymura: _literally invents a new type of flashstep using her time magic just to go theoretically maximum fast when not transformed to glomp the girl_  
>  Kyoko, on the ground: what the fuck!  
> Mami: _what the fuck._  
>  crazymura, hugging Kyoko: Red wife!  
> Kyoko: WHAT THE FUCK!


End file.
